日人殖民統治台灣達50年(1895-1945)，引進了工業革命以降的大量生產形式及現代企業經營型態，也將廣告概念導入台灣。伴隨著政治、社會與經濟的變遷，台灣現代廣告業逐漸成形。當時風行於日本的廣告設計，隨著以日人廠商在台灣設立代理公司，販售日製商品，出現在台灣媒體及公共場所的宣傳海報上。有鑑於台灣日治廣告中女性圖像研究成果有限，處於基本資料蒐集及初步分類，缺乏一個更具系統性的分析方法與具學理基礎的解釋，本研究擬挪用適切的圖像符號學分析模式，解讀日治時期台灣平面廣告再現中的女性圖像及其社會地位。本研究檢視日治時期台灣女性在商業設計中的形象再現，並嘗試說明其中隱含的文化、社會與政治權力鬥爭。藉由整合不同的研究領域，本研究希冀能對亞洲的文本分析及文化研究有所啟示，豐富廣告史相關論述，並展開以性別政治爲主軸，日治時期台灣史與傳播研究之間的學術對話。

Japan had colonized Taiwan for fifty years (1895-1945). During the Japanese Occupation, Japanese immigrants imported the idea of advertising and the practice of mass production brought by the industrial revolution and modern commercial practices to Taiwan. From the tremendous political, social and economic changes, the modern advertising business gradually emerged in Taiwan. As the Japanese businessmen set up agencies and branch offices in order to sell products to Taiwan, Japanese advertising design was also introduced to and appeared on Taiwan's mass media. Very few researchers, however, have investigated the advertisements or the female images on advertisements during the Japanese colonial period. Among them, these research results appear to be data collecting and reports that are lacking in a systematic method of analysis and a theoretical ground of interpretation. Therefore, the present study intends to appropriate the analytical models of pictorial semiotics in order to decipher the female images and social status represented in the print advertisements during the Japanese colonial period. The present study will also try to depict the cultural, social and political power struggles embedded in the commercial design. We hope to integrate principles of advertising with semiotics, so as to shed new light on the textual analysis and cultural studies, and to enrich the scholarship of advertising histories in Asia. The present study expects to create a dialogue between communication studies and historical studies, based on the axis of gender politics.