St. Valentine’s Day in Japan ①

Friday was St. Valentine’s Day. For the past one month, every store I went had a special section for Valentine’s Chocolate Gifts with vivid red and pink pop decorations. TV and magazines made features on what the trends of this year’s chocolate gifts were or introduced homemade sweets recipes. Major department stores held Exhibition and Spot Sale Valentine’s Fair of famous, high brand chocolate gathered from all over the world.

Media has paid much attention to Valentine’s Day, from which you can tell that it is a big event in Japan. Though Valentine’s Day is a foreign culture, it is quite different in Japan. Today, I would like to report on such Valentine’s Day in Japan towards those of you who live overseas but are interested in Japanese culture.

Valentine’s Day in Japan is the day girls

What makes Japanese Valentine’s Day so peculiar is that women give chocolate or chocolate sweets to men. The act of giving chocolate gifts infers “I like you.” “Will he receive my chocolate?” “Will she give me a chocolate?” Valentine’s Day is a significant event for them.

In US or Europe where Valentine’s Day originated, people regardless of their gender, give presents to their lovers, spouses, parents, close friends or teachers to show their affections and appreciations. Presents are not specified to chocolates like in Japan. Any kind of sweets, bouquet, jewelries, or even a card is highly appreciated. What is important is to show how much you care about them.

How Valentine’s Day spread throughout the nation…

Valentine’s Day has been established as one of the annual events in Japan due to confectionary company’s manipulative sales promotion.

On Valentine’s Day,
When you, girl gives chocolate gifts to the boy you like,
Your romantic feelings will reach to him.”

By specifying exactly what to do on Valentine’s Day, the companies successfully fixed the image of Valentine’s Day, which soon spread among women sensible to the latest trends. At first, they must have enjoyed giving out chocolates just for a fun. But soon, the event became so inevitable for Japanese people that we cannot neglect it.

Any companies make efforts to increase in sales. Valentine’s Day in Japan was not exceptional. Knowing that chocolate gifts are strongly tied to Valentine’s Day, it is natural that the related companies employ every available means to promote sales of their own products. So they have planned out strategies to deal with how to sell more of their products to more and more consumers.

Love-you-chocolate and Obligated/Courtesy-chocolate

As I mentioned earlier, chocolate gifts play an important role in Japanese Valentine’s Day; there are two major types of chocolate gifts; “Honmei-chocolate,” or “love-you-chocolate” and “Giri-chocolate,” or obligated/courtesy-chocolate.

“Love-you-chocolate” is literally what women prepare for men they are in love with. They tend to select chocolate gifts at famous, high-class brand stores. Some even spend time and effort on homemade chocolate sweets. Either way, it is very important to convey their genuine love feelings.

“Obligated or courtesy chocolate” means simply “thank you gifts.” Contrarily to the “love-you-chocolate” given to the specific person, obligated/courtesy chocolate gifts are to distribute to male classmates or co-leagues. This is also one of the sale strategies r

The custom of giving out “thank you chocolate” on Valentine’s Day is commonly seen in office. Some prepare chocolate gifts for all the male workers while others pitch in money and take turns in buying gifts. At first, this custom was appreciated so anybody can enjoy Valentine’s Day casually. Because it was widely spread among people in Japan, however, it gradually became mandatory. That is why I phrase “thank you gift” as “obligated or courtesy.” Depending on the situations, this peculiar custom of Japanese Valentine’s Day could be regarded as positive or negative acts. As a result, some office banned their workers from giving out chocolate gifts on Valentine’s Day.

This actually happened in my husband’s office. He used to bring home decent chocolate gifts properly wrapped. But for the past 10 years, instead of getting individual gifts, some chocolate snacks are ready for break time. Although break time snacks are always available and all the workers pitch in money for them, my husband says he feels happy to see chocolate snacks in Valentine package on Valentine’s Day.

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In the next blog entry, I would like to focus on other more about
Return Gifts for Valentine’s Day in one month later on White Day.
The budget for the return gifts is approximately 1.5 to 3 times more!?