Happy Valentine’s Day from Japan! Here in Japan Valentine’s Day is a slightly different concept. Thanks to a huge marketing effort by chocolate companies, Valentine’s Day has become a day on which women give presents (mainly chocolates) to men. This has become an obligation for many women. This chocolate is most often called giri–choko (義理チョコ) (which means “obligation chocolate”), because it is the chocolate given to men such as bosses, colleagues or male friends that women have no romantic interest in, just friendship or gratitude. Giri is such a Japanese concept. It is the mutual obligation that the Japanese follow when dealing with other people. If someone does you a favor, then you feel obligated to do something for that person. Women who work in offices end up giving chocolates to all their male co-workers, sometimes at significant personal expense. This contrasts with honmei–choko (which means “a true love”), which is given to a person someone loves or has a strong relationship with. Friends, especially girls, exchange chocolate that is referred to as tomo-choko (友チョコ); tomo means “friend” in Japanese.
I totally do not understand this phenomenon. These women sometimes spend huge amounts of money on expensive chocolates because of the amount of giri they might have, or because of the number of male co-workers they have. Why? Since when do men love receiving chocolate as much as women? The BBC has a fun little article on why Japanese women hate Valentine’s Day:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4712542.stm
Now, my idea of a great Japanese Valentine’s Day present would be something from this place:
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