Happy
Valentine's Day!
Yes, February 14th is Valentine's Day in Japan, as well, yet events of this day are a little different from that of Western countries. Then, how Japanese people enjoy the day?
Apparently Valentine's Day culture was originally imported to Japan in late
1950s as a romantic event for couples although it wasn't really anchored down. However, in late
1970s, Valentine's Day started to be common among young girls because
Japanese candy companies made advertisements such as "Girls! Valentine's
Day is a day for romantic love! Why don't you muster up your courage to give a
chocolate gift to the boy you love on this day? The chocolate will tell the boy
how you feel!". It attracted many young girls who were very shy to
verbally confess their feelings.
Surely it would be much easier for them to just hand a chocolate gift and say "This is my Valentine's gift, please receive it" than confessing own feeling. Also girls and women who had a boyfriend or husband welcomed the culture because most Japanese people were very shy back then and it was easy and fun to give a chocolate gift instead of telling "I love you".
Since then,
Valentine's Day has been a day for girls and women in Japan. They give
chocolates to the boy they love, or their boyfriend/husband. So, most shopping
malls have Valentine's chocolate gift corners in this season, and the customers
at the corners are mostly girls/women.
Yet
apparently some parts of Japanese Valentine's Day culture is now changing.
According to a newspaper survey, nowadays not so many girls/women are giving
chocolates to boys/men who they want to confess their feelings. Instead of that
many girls/women answered that they give chocolates to their friends or father.
It seems like giving chocolate gifts on Valentine’s Day is becoming more like a
social activity in these days.
Perhaps Japanese girls and women are not very shy anymore to need this day to confess their feelings? Anyway, they are still buying chocolates for this day!
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