Women Give Chocolates to Men Day

Valentine’s Day in Japan is for chocolates!

Chocolate Galore!

Valentine’s Day in Japan is a little different from in western countries. Whether by mistranslation or commercializing women’s desire to express their true feelings for a certain manly someone, the message got out that women give men chocolate on this day. Later this expression of love for a certain special someone transformed into chocolates for every man in their life as a show of appreciation. Then later there was added chocolates for men in your work group that would feel left out if they didn’t receive any chocolates from you (if you are a woman). Recently women have decided to give each other (their girl friends) chocolates as well as to indulge themselves while fancy chocolate supplies are plentiful and other people don’t know that they are really buying for themselves. Some men have even started reciprocating chocolates on the same day, but it is still rare. Each of these layers of chocolate giving have their own name in Japanese and of course quality of chocolate.

Honmei-choco (本命チョコ) or “true aim chocolates”

Honmei-choco are the chocolates given as expression of romantic love or interest. Naturally these are high quality, but not necessarily store bought. Really high quality chocolates are usually out of the budget range of young women. So they may make their own chocolates instead. These gifts of love are made all the more romantic by the time, care, attention to detail given in making and presenting them.

Giri-choco (義理チョコ) or “obligation/appreciation chocolates”

Giri-choco is usually translated as obligation chocolate. But it can also mean appreciation chocolate. These are chocolates for work mates who helped you out or some who took care of the chocolate giver. Usually these were for men, but recently women can also receive such chocolates. Normally these are store bought and the quality is about mid-range and not quite so expensive. As women may have many work mates, these can get quite expensive.
In recent years some companies have forbidden the giving of chocolates to work mates on Valentine’s Day because of the economic stress it puts on women who feel that they have to give such chocolates. Also, some workplace men have been known to pressure women into giving them chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Because of fears of workplace harassment and to create a better work environment for women, some companies have started to forbid giving out of Giri-choco.

Cho-giri-choco (著義理チョコ) or “super obligatory chocolates”

Cho-giri-choco are the chocolates that the woman feels compelled to give out even though they either don’t know or actively dislike the person, but feel that they have to give them a chocolate so as not to appear to be singling out that person. These chocolates are usually of the cheapest quality.
Tomo-choco (友チョコ) or “friend chocolates”
Tomo-choco are the chocolates given out to the woman’s lady friends. These chocolates can be pretty high quality and even hand made like the Honmei-choco. These are really common and it isn’t unusual for a woman to give out the majority of her chocolates to this group. Later on, out of site of the men, women will enjoy eating their Tomo-choco together.

Jibun-choco (自分チョコ) or “my chocolates“

Jibun-choco is the chocolate that people buy for themselves. I say people because quite a few men will buy chocolates for themselves to eat also. The lead up to Valentine’s Day usually has a lot of really good chocolates in the stores everywhere in Japan. So, quite a few people indulge themselves at this time of year while supplies last.

Gyaku-choco (逆 チョコ) or “return chocolates“

Though still pretty rare, some men do feel the need to reciprocate chocolate with chocolate on Valentine’s Day in Japan instead of waiting for White Day (March 14th).

References

In English

https://matcha-jp.com/en/5663

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tag/valentines-day/

In Japanese

http://www.chocolate-cocoa.com/dictionary/history/valentine/v02.html

https://kotobank.jp/word/バレンタインデー-117655

Photo thanks to Wikipedia.org in Japan.

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