Ad Council Japan

Advertising Council Japan (公益社団法人ACジャパン, Kōeki Shadan Hōjin AC Japan; Ad Council Japan, AC Japan), formerly named Japan Advertising Council (社団法人公共広告機構, Shadan Hōjin Kōkyō Kōkoku Kikō; Japan Ad Council) until 30 June 2009, is a private non-profit organization that distributes Japanese public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including both non-profit organizations and government agencies.

Like the US counterpart, the Ad Council (where the Ad Council Japan is modelled), Ad Council Japan generally does not produce public service advertisements itself; rather, it acts as a coordinator and distributor. Its advertising campaigns are divided into three; national campaign, regional campaign and aid campaign. The advertising campaigns are changed yearly in July, the month Ad Council Japan was founded. Ad Council Japan accepts requests from sponsor organizations for Japanese advertising campaigns that focus on particular social issues.

An issue must be non-partisan and have Asian and Japanese national or regional relevance. Ad Council Japan then assigns each campaign to a volunteer advertising agency that produces the actual advertisements. Finally, Ad Council Japan distributes the finished advertisements to media outlets. Some advertising campaigns only appear on a certain medium, such as on printed media only.

TV stations could also replace empty advertisement slots with those of Ad Council Japan if a company is willing to remove their advertisements from the station.^[1]