Valentine’s Day and White Day: Japanese Marketing at its Best

Is anyone feeling that anxious drive to buy that special someone a $50 box of heart-shaped chocolates for the upcoming love holiday? Or is anyone dying to buy a frilly negligee that their sweetie’ll never wear but they’ll buy anyway because the store clerk will convince them that she’ll be their love slave all Valentine’s Day night? Hurry up and buy some bling or you won’t get ANY on Valentine’s Day! Hurry, hurry, buy, buy, buy…you only have seven days left to prove your love!

Valentine’s Day didn’t start out this way you know. It has it’s roots in ancient Roman traditions and was only recently reincarnated into the holiday we’re familiar with during the Victorian Period. In Victorian times, Valentine’s Day cards were created as a way of saying I love you and were exchanged February 14th. Simple as that; just a card, nothing else. This tradition started in England and made its way to the US where it began a life of its own and became the monstrosity it is today.

Valentines Day has also found its way across the ocean to Japan and into Japanese marketers’ dreams. On Valentine’s Day in America, men are guilted like mad to shop for teddies, chocolates, jewelry, hotel stays, pricey dinners and expensive perfume. American women, on the other hand, aren’t leaned on as much by the marketing geniuses who have mutated this day from its pagan roots into the commercialized abomination it’s become. Basically, Valentine’s Day in America boils down to this: Guilt=Gifts=Happy Women (sometimes s-e-x)= Happy Marketers.

In Japan, however, Valentines Day breaks down into this: Obligation=Chocolate=Happy Men=Happy Chocolate Makers. Women get screwed (not literally) on Valentine’s Day in Japan. Not only do they not get squat, but they HAVE to buy chocolate for EVERY man they know. WTF?! Here at least, a guy, or a girl for that matter, can give anything he/she wants to whomever he/she wants without a sense that he/she HAS to.

giri-choco

The Japanese have special chocolates they give to different people. Chocolate given to men by women who aren’t particularly fond of them is called giri-choco, or “obligation chocolate”. Giri-choco is usually given to men at the workplace or to any man the woman knows but isn’t gaga over. It’s considered embarrassing by some men not to get some form of choco on V-Day. Giri-choco is usually inexpensive and is made by all the major chocolate makers in Japan.

honmei-choco

On the other hand, a man that a woman truly loves will receive honmei-choco, or “prospective winner chocolate”. Along with the chocolates, the man will usually receive neckties and clothes. Honmei-choco is of a higher quality, is more expensive and may even be homemade for that special touch.

This unique Japanese celebration of Valentine’s Day was created around 1958 by smart chocolatiers wanting to cash in on the holiday. Companies, like glico, Meiji, and Lotte make a huge chunk of their year’s profits the week or so before February 14th.

White Day

Since women get nada for Valentine’s Day, another smart marketer, allegedly a marshmallow manufacturer, came up with the idea that girl’s should get marshmallows on March 14th. That’s supposedly how White Day came about and why it’s dubbed White Day. This little bit of marketing was invented around 1965 (once again that’s ‘allegedly’).

White day is the day that men give white chocolate, regular chocolate, cookies, candy, flowers, ect. to the women who gifted them the previous month. Apparently giri-choco is not given on White Day. Men give presents to women who gave them gifts on V-Day and to the women they’re feeling romantic about. Sadly, White Day hasn’t really taken off the way Valentine’s Day has.

The only real difference in Valentine’s Day in America and in Japan is that here in the US it’s a colossal marketing ploy that guilts men into shopping for their honies while in Japan it’s a colossal marketing ploy that makes women feel obligated (not guilty; guilt and obligation are slightly different) to purchase choco for every man they come in daily contact with. Other than that, Valentines Day shares the same capitalist essence of the holiday in both countries.