The Curious World of J-Pop & Sub-culture

OSEIBO:

JAPANESE TRADITION
SHOWING APPRECIATION

Japan's Traditional Gift Culture

The spirit of gift giving is to show appreciation and care of the senders to the receivers. This is a universal practice, but the styles might differ from culture to culture. In Japan, there is a unique gift culture that has been passed down for years, called “oseibo”. Oseibo literally means “the end of the year,” and it originally referred to the custom of people distributing the offerings used for their ancestors’ memorial services at the end of the year. At the time, items such as sake, mochi (glutinous rice cakes), cured salmon, kombu (kelp), dried fish, and katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes) were given to relatives, neighbors, and business associates. Over the course of time, this custom has changed and today people give gifts, not leftover offerings, at the end of the year to show appreciation to people who mean a lot to them.

One interesting aspect of oseibo is that it’s not really person-to-person gifts, but a family-to-family or company-to-company gift-giving culture. So the gift items are not personal but something that everyone can enjoy. The most sought-after oseibo gifts are assortments of food and household goods that can be enjoyed by the entire family such as local specialty foods, premium ham and sausage, condiments, oils, sweets, beer, coffee, and detergent. Regional delicacies delivered directly from producers have been rising in popularity in recent years.

Gift certificates are becoming more and more popular these days. From the givers’ point of view, they save time as well as shipping costs, and from the receivers’ side, they can buy whatever they want. Though it is convenient, some people are unwilling to present gift certificates because they are too unimaginative and inappropriate to show appreciation. For those who dislike gift certificates, gift catalogues offer a perfect solution. They allow the gift giver to select a collection of gifts and a price range, and the receiver to choose their gift from the collection. Each household usually sends three to five oseibo gifts each year, price range of each item is from 3,000 yen ($38.96) to 5,000 yen ($64.93).
*Exchange rate: $1.00 = 77 yen

Oseibo gift manners

The oseibo gift is supposed to be delivered during the period from early December to around December 20. This is not a strict rule to follow and one can still send oseibo gifts in late December, however, it is best avoided because people are extremely busy during this time of year.

For oseibo, special wrapping paper called noshibami (See photo on the right) should be attached on top of the gift. There are two ways to do this; place noshigami directly on top of the gift box and then wrap it with paper, or wrap the box with paper first and place noshigami on top of the wrapped gift. Noshigami has mizuhiki (ornamental paper ribbon) and noshi (a symbol used for celebratory gifts) patterns printed on it. The real mizuhiki is used for several formal occasions, including weddings, the birth of a child, graduations, and funerals, and each occasion requires a specific type of knotting style. The knot for oseibo is a butterfly knot using an odd number of red and white mizuhiki.

Modern oseibo culture

As technology advances, the economy shifts, and lifestyles change the oseibo culture has been transformed. Until the 1990s, the oseibo giving culture in corporations was huge, but after the recession in the 90s, it gradually decreased its prosperity. Seeing this trend, the retail industry has shifted its focus to individual customers. People today are shopping more frequently online, and the retailers are changing their services to heavily rely on online marketing. Online shops have a greater selection than actual stores as well as more information, allowing customers to learn more about each item. On the other hand, the actual shop display is convenient for customers to check the items by themselves. To deliver the gift, people used to visit each household and company and exchange greetings when delivering. That’s not popular anymore, rather mailing an oseibo is more common because it saves time for both the senders and receivers.

Technology may make life easier and the oseibo culture is becoming more and more casual these days, but people in Japan have never abandoned the oseibo culture nor lost the spirit of showing appreciation.