For most of us in the West, Valentine’s Day ends on February 15, but in Japan it’s not quite over until March 15. March 14 – exactly one month after Valentine’s Day – is White Day in Japan.

Valentine’s Day In Japan

To really understand what White Day is all about, you have to understand what Valentine’s Day in Japan is like. Koichi did a writeup about it a while ago so I won’t go into detail here, but the basic gist of Japanese Valentine’s Day is that it’s all about the guys.

Unlike Western traditions where gift exchanges between loved ones are mutual, Japanese Valentine’s Day is all about men getting presents. Sorry ladies, but you’re out of luck on Valentine’s Day if you want to celebrate it Japanese-style. Women have to wait for White Day before they can get any gifts.

What Is White Day?

If Valentine’s Day in Japan is all about the guys, White Day is all about the ladies. White Day is a chance for all the men who received gifts on Valentine’s Day to return the favor to the ladies in their lives.

White Day and Valentine’s Day have a lot of similarities. Both aren’t necessarily romantic holidays – you can give gifts to anybody of the opposite sex, even if your relationship is strictly platonic. Friends and co-workers exchange gifts on both days.

Note: ice-cold response not typical.

And on both days, chocolate is the gift of choice, but there’s a bit more nuance to it than buying a box of See’s and being done with it. You can buy different types of chocolate for the different people in your life: your friends get different chocolates than your co-workers who get different chocolates than your significant other.

Confused yet? Don’t worry, Koichi’s Valentine’s Day post explains it all.

The Origins Of White Day

Cynically enough, White Day is strictly a celebration manufactured by the candy industry (unlike true holidays rooted in years of tradition, like Pocky Day). In 1978, the National Confectionery Industry Association tried to boost sales, and decided that a new holiday was the best way to do it.

Originally it was called Marshmallow Day and was all about marshmallows, not chocolate. People liked the idea of the new holiday, but weren’t too keen on the marshmallows. The preferred candy changed from marshmallows to chocolate, but the color scheme stayed the same – hence the name “White Day,” and why white chocolate remains a popular White Day gift, even today.

White Day Outside Of Japan

White Day is definitely a uniquely Japanese invention, but it’s spread to some other Asian countries, including South Korea and China.

South Korea even has yet another Valentine’s-Day-related holiday: the aptly named day for single people, Black Day. People in Korea celebrate being single by burying their sorrows with a noodle dish with black bean sauce called jajangmyeon.

(No doubt, Black Day is just a ploy by the powerful Korean noodle industry.)

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So for those in you in Japan, I hope you’re having a happy White Day today; those of us elsewhere in the world will just have to buy our own chocolate.

[Header image source.]

A couple months back, we already talked about how different the Japanese Christmas is. Now it’s time to take a look at another holiday that’s isn’t quite the same in Japan: Valentine’s Day.

As with all Western holidays that have made their way over to Japan, almost all of the changes and “traditions” have been created by commercial organizations, looking to build swimming pools of 500 yen coins. In fact, only during one week before Valentine’s Day, chocolate companies make half of their annual sales. That’s a lot of money, and a lot of chocolate.

Then again, in America (and other places too), we give a lot of chocolate as well. So, what makes Japan different?

Only Girls Give Chocloate

Back in the 1950′s, a company advertised Valentine’s Day chocolates to non-Japanese living in Japan at the time. Then, Japanese companies wanted to get on board too, and started advertising Valentine’s Day chocolates as well. During this period there was quite a bit of “Westernization” where people wanted to adopt more Western / American traditions. Because of this, Valentine’s Day in Japan did fairly well.

But there was one problem…

It seems that at some point someone messed up a translation and ended up telling the Japanese people that Valentine’s Day was an opportunity for women to express their love to men. Because of this, even to this day it’s mostly women giving chocolates to men (don’t worry, men get their turn too, eventually).

Giri-Chocolate, Honmei-Chocolate, and Tomo-Chocolate

It gets more complicated, though. Because it’s not nice to make people feel left out on Valentine’s day (especially in, say, the office), there are different kinds of chocolates girls give out now, depending on who they’re giving it to.

Giri-Chocolate (義理チョコ)

Giri-Chocolate means “obligatory chocolate.” This kind of chocolate refers to the chocolate you have to give to people (who aren’t really people you love). These could be people like bosses, coworkers, male friends, etc. Even sadder still, there’s also something called “Cho-Giri-Chocolate” (Ultra-obligatory-chocolate), which is given to unpopular people you really don’t want to give chocolates to.

In order to tell these chocolates apart from other (less obligatory) chocolates, these chocolates tend to be pretty run-of-the-mill, and not super expensive. Things don’t start getting crazy until we get to Honmei-Chocolates.

Honmei-Chocolate (本命チョコ)

Honmei-Chocolate means “favorite chocolate.” This kind of chocolate is the kind of chocolate you give to the one you want to express your love to. These chocolates tend to be more expensive or possibly even home made. Basically, it has to be obvious that these are honmei and not giri, so they have to be on a completely different level (Way to go Chocolate companies! Ka-Ching! ￥￥￥￥).

Tomo-Chocolate (友チョコ)

Tomo-choco just means “friend chocolates,” and refers to chocolates you give to your female friends (as a female). Simple as that.

Getting The Guys To Give

Guys don’t give anything on Valentine’s Day in Japan, but they do have their own day one month later where they’re expected to return the favor. That day is known as “White Day” (or, if you’re old enough to remember, “Marshmallow Day”), and it also sounds pretty expensive.

To learn about that, though, you’ll have to wait for a month. On March 14 I’ll post something up about White Day as well, so you’ll have to wait until then! :)

Everyone enjoy their Valentine’s Day… and to all you girls out there: I’m waiting for my cho-giri-choco from you.

P.S. If you didn’t get me any cho-giri-choco, then shame on you.

P.P.S. You can make it up to me by following Tofugu on Twitter.