St. Valentine's Day is celebrated in many parts of the world as a lovers' festival on February 14, but in Japan it has taken a unique twist. Introduced to the country by a chocolate manufacturer, it has turned into one of the busiest and most lucrative days of the year for Japanese confectioners.
Loss of Innocence
It was in 1958 that a Tokyo-based chocolatier launched a marketing campaign at a department store outlet, billing Valentine's Day as "the day women confess their love to a man with a gift of chocolate." The idea struck a chord in the country, which was anxious to embark on a new, freer era, and was widely publicized in the media.
For much of the 1960s chocolate giving retained a certain innocence, with blushing young women mustering their courage to hand a boxful of sweets to their unannounced love interest. By the following decade, however, it had become a full-blown commercial event, with all the large confectioners jumping on the Valentine's Day bandwagon.
In the 1980s women began giving chocolates not so much as a romantic overture but out of "giri," or obligation--to their male bosses, teachers, colleagues, and schoolmates. But they still reserved the most expensive gifts for their "honmei," or true sweethearts.
Give and Take
Hoping to rectify the one-sidedness of the affair, a couple of decades ago marshmallow makers introduced the idea of a White Day on March 14, when men were urged to reciprocate their Valentine's Day gifts. Although the idea's originators no doubt hoped to sell more marshmallows, this spinoff has taken hold as a day when men return the generosity of their female acquaintances with a wide variety of gifts--both white (white chocolate, white handkerchiefs, and even white, satiny underwear) and nonwhite (accessories, flowers, dinner dates, and so on).
New Ways to Celebrate
Over the past couple of years other new days on which young couples are encouraged to show their affection with hefty purchases have been introduced. With the Japanese economy going through one of the longest and toughest business slumps in the postwar period, many more innovations to spur consumption could be in the offing.
(The above article, edited by Japan Echo Inc., is based on domestic Japanese news sources. It is offered for reference purposes and does not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.)