JAPAN’S FUN-FILLED, UNIQUE VALENTINE CULTURE

Love Confession Without Words From Females

It may look peculiar from the western point of view, but the Japanese Valentine culture is unique mainly in the following three ways:

1 The gift is given always from female to male.
2 The gift items are predominantly chocolate.
3 This gift giving practice imparts a confession of affection.

There is no definite origin for this, but the confectionary industry in Japan played a huge role in establishing such an original style of Valentine culture. Some say the confectionary company Morozoff first promoted the chocolate giving culture in 1936, and some say companies like Mary’s Chocolate and Morinaga made the trend in the late 50s and the early 60s. Other commercial involvement boosted the chocolate giving culture and created it into almost a ritual observed in Japan. This chocolate giving culture from female to male originally spread among younger generations such as high school and college students, and the chocolate became used as a symbol for confessing affection to the receiver. That is a drastic spin from the American custom, where expression of gratitude is from male to female and roses are usually given instead of chocolate. Today, for chocolatiers and confectionary companies, either pre made or for hand making chocolate confections, the Valentine’s Day market is extremely big in Japan, with more than 20% of chocolate sales for St. Valentine’s Day.

Honmei vs. Giri Choco

The Japanese style Valentine’s Day in which males are the recipients of chocolate gifts from females can come in two forms. If the male is lucky and he is her “honmei” or true love, either as a boyfriend/husband/lover or someone who is desired to be a boyfriend/husband/lover, the “honmei choco” is usually a more expensive luxury chocolate, or customarily and preferably hand made especially to show him how special she thinks he is. On the contrary, for male coworkers for whom there is no romantic interest and out of a social obligation, these “giri choco” (named from the word “duty”) will be store bought and of lesser value. A woman can typically spend a big amount on buying chocolates for all her coworkers.

White Day

Unique in Japan, “White Day” is a day on March 14 as an answer to Valentine’s Day, where this time, men return the favor to women, having received chocolate gifts one month earlier. The culture of Valentine’s Day in Japan could be considered one-sided, as only females present chocolate gifts to a male, either to their romantic interest “honmei choco = chocolate of love” or as a social obligation “giri choco = courtesy chocolate” to male coworkers. It is said the origins of White Day came from a confectionary company in Fukuoka that marketed marshmallows to men on March 14, spreading to other companies that began to sell white chocolate and candies. White Day gifts can be anything from cookies, cakes and other sweets, however it is expected that the gift from the male should be roughly 2-3 times the value of the received gift.