Japanese Valentine's

So you're probably sick of 'v' day now and think it should be forgotten till next year but I couldn't not share this with you. I found out that in Japan Valentine's Day is a day for the women of Japan to give gifts. Yep, while many women are being wined and dined in the western world in Japan the ladies are doing the wooing.

Japanese women give chocolate, can be shop bought or handmade, to males as an expression of love, courtesy or social obligation. So there is no confusion to whether the gift is a gift of love or courtesy there are two types of chocolate given, honmei choco or giri choco. Honmei choco literally translates to "true feeling chocolate" and so given to boyfriends, husbands or prospective boyfriends. This chocolate tends to be of high quality and some women go as far as to make it themselves! Giri choco, meaning obligation chocolate, is given to males that the lady has no romantic interest in; just friendship and gratitude. Recipients are normally colleagues, bosses and family members. Giri is an etiquette that the Japanese follow when dealing with other people. It is a mutual obligation; if someone does you a favour, then you feel obligated to do something for that person. In recent years another category has become popular, tomo choco, translated to friend chocolate given to female friends.

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But don't worry, ladies aren't left out as exactly a month later it's time for the men to step up to the plate as on the 14th of March White Day is celebrated. Males who were recipients of chocolates are expected to return the favour and give gifts back to the women. Popular gifts include cookies, marshmallows, white chocolate, white lingerie and jewellery. There is a cited rule 'sanbai gaeshi' which means triple the return where the return gift should cost two or three times more than the valentine's gift!

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So is this just a ploy formulated by companies to sell a lot of chocolate and other gifts? Well, it's said that more than half of the chocolates sold in a year is sold around Valentine's Day in Japan and White Day was started in 1978 by the National Confectionery Industry Association. I'll leave it up to you to decide.