In Japan, Valentine's Day is a bit different. The tradition here is that girls/women give chocolate to guys (girls get a present from those guys in March on "white day" -they get white gifts like white chocolate, marshmallow covered chocolate etc). Also, there is "giri choco" which basically means "obligation chocolate". Women give chocolate to their bosses or some other important men in their lives-this is expected and has a long tradition in Japan.
But what is a new trend in Japan is "tomo choco" meaning "friendship chocolate" and according to a recent survey 74 percent of women plan to give a Valentine's gift to a female friend but only 32 percent intended to buy something for a boyfriend. In another survey a chocolate maker surveyed 500 women and 92% said they had received tomo choco from a friend last year. And of these women, only 11.2 percent said they plan to give chocolates to a someone they love.
So....there is a good chance many men will be "chocolateless" on Valentine's here in Japan.
4 comments:
Yep, I gave tomo chocolate this year, but no love chocolate haha. Well I'm american so it doesn't really apply to me haha!
I am not from japan but i am interested about the tradition. All of this are new to me. Btw, just saw your blog today while searching online.
I remember staying in Japan during Valentine's day and white day... it was really neat to see all those things in the mall!!
Are you catching any of the Olympics on TV over there?
Wow, that's so interesting.
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