Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day. I saw many customers in the flower shop beside my office. According to Wikipedia, it is the traditional day in North America and Europe on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. My American friend told me that this reciprocal gift exchange is mainly done by young couples before marriage.

Japan also has this holiday, but there are two huge differences. One is that only women sent gifts to men, not vice versa. It’s not reciprocal but exclusively women’s day. However, men who have received Valentine’s Day gift are expected to return some gifts to women one month later, on March 14, which is called as “White Day.” Another difference is appropriate gift for Valentine’s Day. While other stuff such as necktie is also allowed, it should be basically chocolate. On the other hand, candy has been considered as White day gift.

So Japanese Valentine’s day is rather distinctive holiday form Western standpoint. Why such differences? While, generally speaking, the origin of customs shared in societies is very difficult to trace, the creator of Japanese Valentine’s day is well known: Kunio Hara, the CEO of Mary’s Chocolate Company. This confectionary company was founded by his father in 1952. Hara, who worked at his father’s company as a part time worker, received the mail from his senpai, an elder friend or mentor, who worked as an employee at the trading company in Paris. The senpai wrote him that French had a custom that lovers send flowers, cards, and chocolate each other on February 14. This letter made him to propose his father to utilize this European custom to sell their chocolate products and gained his father’s approval. His first attempt in 1953 was totally failed. At the shop in Isetan, the department store in Tokyo, he sold only three packages during three days of the sale because Japanese were unfamiliar with this custom.

However, his father gave Mr. Hara another chance to hold the sale in the next year. He created new products such as heart mark shaped chocolate and constellation mortified chocolate. He also devised the service to engrave the names of both the senders and receivers on the chocolates at the shops. Most important decision he made was about his campaign that targeted single women customers. He advertised that on Valentine’s Day women were allowed to confess their love to men. At that age, it was unthinkable for the majority, who believed women should obey men’s initiative in any aspects, that women confess love to men. One the other hand, it was also true that traditional norm that limited Japanese women’s liberty had been disappearing little by little after the WWII. Hara utilized the gradual improvement of women’s status.

His marketing effort made female consumers recognize this holiday gradually, but it became very popular after many magazines, wihch were created in 1950s and 1960s to target young female readership, reported Hara as the creator of Valentine’s Day. Now, sending chocolate on this day is still as important as the traditional seasonal gift-giving custom such as chugen and seibo.

Contrary to Valentine’s Day, the origin of White Day, the men to women day, is not clear. According to one theory, a marshmallow maker started marketing to men on the grounds that they should pay back women with marshmallows. After that confectionary companies joined this campaign, this return gift also become common. Now, the kind of appropriate gifts for White Day is more diverse than Valentine’s Day from white chocolate to candy to gem to lingerie.

I think both holidays diffused deeply in Japanese society because Valentine’s Day enhanced the raison d'etre of White Day and vice versa. In Japan, give-and-take principle is considered as important in gift-giving settings. If you receive something from others, it means you now have a sort of obligation to return something back in near future. The manner book published in Japan tell us (a) you shoud return something if you receive something, (b) the timing of returning gifts should be done around one month later, not so fast, no so late. Valentine’s Day and White Day fit this rule well. Women expect men will give them White Day gifts if women give men Valentine’s Day gifts. It’s a kind of investment. On the other hand, men are obliged to return gift if they receive Valentine’s Day gifts from women. It’s a vicious circle observed in love politics among youngsters in an affuent society.