KIDPROJ MCC: Valentine's Day

A Page From the KIDPROJ Multi-Cultural Calendar
Valentine's Day - Japan
by Mike Barker

14 February

Valentine's Day

Japan celebrates Valentine's Day like America, but there are some differences. For one thing, they call it St. Valentine's Day.

Also, the advertising starts in about mid-January, with the main wave of advertising (sales, etc.) in the first two weeks of February. The main focus of all this isn't cards - it's chocolate.

Actually, I should say CHOCOLATE! One of our local department stores had half of one floor devoted to tables and tables of different kinds - big boxes, little boxes, filled, straight, white, brown, fancy shapes, make-it-yourself, more kinds of chocolate than I think I have ever seen. Since the store only has three floors (four if you count the grocery in the basement), this was a significant part of the store just for St. Valentine's Day presents!

Every grocery store, 24 hour corner store, and just about any other kind of store you can think of had a section devoted to St. Valentine's Day chocolates this year.

I should also mention that Hershey's and the other foreign chocolate companies seem to have a strong presence in all this.

The chocolates on February 14 are only given by girls - the men get the presents. In fact, in most offices, the girls give their boss a present ("giri" choco - duty chocolates).

In case you feel sorry for the girls - March 14 is White Day, when those men who got chocolates are supposed to return the favor.

By the way - this year, the "fad" of Valentine's Day ran right into the poor economic picture, and all the stores report very poor sales.

I know that last year I got about five different presents (and carefully returned chocolates in March). This year... six girls in the office got together and bought me one small box of chocolates.

That's okay - my wife, Mitsuko, made chocolate chip cookies for me!

So - St. Valentine's Day, in Japan, is a "Sadie Hawkins" day, when the girls give chocolate to the men, so that on White Day, March 14, the men will give them chocolate.

And you thought Hallmark had something to do with it?

Mike Barker
Japan
<barker@aegis.org>

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