How to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day in Japan
On this Feb.14th which was “Saint Valentine’s Day” , “Valentine’s day Campaign Akihabara”, a special event of the Akihabara “maids” giving chocolate donuts to passers-by in Akihabara Tokyo, the most famous mecca of the Japanese subcultures, such as video games, anime, and manga, was held. http://jp.newses.net/news/article/id/28ff97e2bcb0bf888a023f84faab6dc0/ This event was organized by JNTO(Japan National Tourism Organization) as a part of the VJC(Yokoso Japan, Visit Japan Campaign), ATPA( Akihabara Tourism Promotion Association), and some other related associations. 
VJC has been promoted since 2003 by the Japanese government to encourage inbound activities and visitors from foreign countries all over the world. As some other writers and myself have written on this website, subculture represented by the Akihabara styles and concepts are quite popular not only in Japan but worldwide nowadays. So, this event was conducted especially in order to promote those cultural aspects and attractions of the area to foreign visitors and tourists.
In addition, in many areas , special events related to valentine’s Day were held on the 14th. For example, the kissing demonstration of seals at Shimoda Aquarium(/下田海中水族館) in Shimoda City, Shizuoka Pref. http://www.shimoda-aquarium.com/index.html, and the display of so many colossal heart-shaped LED(light-emitted diode) bouquets at Shinmachi-bashi- higashi Park(/新町橋東公園) in Tokushima City, Tokushima Pref., with about 100 local residents decorating the park using the artificial bouquets and releasing about 5000 plastic balls in each of which LED was included into the river there. Totally about 2,3000 LEDs were used for the event, which satisfied those who joined it saying; the light made very romantic hues and atmosphere. That event was a forerunner one of the ” Tokushima LED Art Festival 2010″ which is going to be held in the coming April in that city.
And in Hikone City, Shiga Pref., Hikonyan, the very popular image character created for the series of commemorative events of the 400 anniversary of the Hikone Castle which is a national treasure in the City in 2007 http://www.hikone-400th.jp/, was given totally 224 chocolates,which is the record-high in these three years, and so many valentines by its fans all over Japan on the 14th. The municipality hosted a special thanksgiving event at Hikone Castle Museum(/彦根城博物館)http://longlife.city.hikone.shiga.jp/museum/index.html , at which Hikonyan happily posed for photos with the ample chocolates it had been given. 
To begin with, as it is widely known, the Saint Valentine’s Day(St. Valentine’s Day or just Valentine’s Day) is a kind of worldwide special memorial or holiday that is said to have been set up by a Catholic Pope in the fifth century in token of a martyr saint who had defended young couples against the law.
However, in Japan the ways of practices of the day are slightly different from that of other countries in general. In other countries, St. Valentine’s Day is a special day that lovers express love for each other by presenting gifts or the greeting cards of valentine. But traditionally in Japan , celebreting Valentine’s Day is a relatively new custom introduced from the West, and yet unlike in western or other countries, has widely become prevalent among young people as the special day that for girls to confess and express their love to boys. The day is primarily recognized as a special occasion on which a girl gives chocolates in token of her confession and love. Actually, this new practice has been supposed to be first developed and promoted by confectionery companies as a sales strategy. Some people even say that Japanese girls are supposed to be comparatively demure and timid, which justifies the society to set a moral that they ought not to declare their love, and to prepare an exceptional occasion for them to tell they love boys. Personally, I don’t think this idea should be correct, as Japanese girls are as free as boys in the present-day Japanese society ,and, on the other hand, some boys are quite demure or timid as well even today. Actually, the true reason or back story of that Japanese style of celebrating the day is not clear yet.
And what is more, females are expected to give chocolates to their male family members, male co-workers, bosses, and so forth on the day. Needless to say, those ” ordinary male acquaintances or just friends” are not the female’s “boyfriends or lovers” at all. Yet that kind of gift chocolates are considered to be ” good lubricants” for their relationships and atmosphere in the workplaces or any other human relations. That type of ” a protocol chocolate gift ” is called ” Giri-choko” (/義理チョコ, an obligation chocolate), while the authentic chocolate to express her love to a boy, a boyfriend, or a husband is called ” Honmei- choko”(/本命チョコ, a chocolate for one’s sweetheart).
People are encouraged so much to buy both giri-choko and Honmei-choko by confectionery companies, department stores, and other businesses previous weeks of the day, but chocolates for standard giri and those for standard honmei are so different at the prices set up by stores. Anyway so many those stores usually set a special “Valentine’s Day Gift Corners” full of varieties of selections of chocolates and other sweets. Still some people don’t like this practice as the costs of even cheap giri-choko can be very burdensome if a female must buy them for all her male colleges and friends, if some men are given giri-choko and some are not in the same office by the same female co-worker, then this practice would backfire, as it can make the atmosphere there so bad. However, in spite of those negative possibilities, usually many females don’t grumble and happy to buy chocolates and men are also happy to be given giri-choko even though they can’t be given a honmei-choko from any girl… 
What is unique to Japan and Korea concerning the Valentine’s Day practice is we have the ” White Day” on Mar.14th, just one month from a Valentine’s Day. On that day, a male who was given a chocolate from a female on the Valentine’s Day of the year is supposed to give some gift ,such as cookies, handkerchiefs, or more expensive items, whose prices are usually to be commensurate with the “degree of importance” or the price of the chocolate that he was given by her. The idea of a male ” giving back a gift to a girl who gave him a honmei-choko to express his will of accepting her love” is the basic concept of the White Day, which was started by Ishimaru Manseidou, a confectioneryin Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Pref. whose primary specialty is marshmallows that are usually white, which became the reason of the name of the White Day http://www.whiteday314.jp/. The store began to promote for sales of a marshmallow as the suitable gift as a return to a chocolate gift of the Valentine’s Day in 1978. Since then this new custom has rapidly prevailed nationwide and even to the neighboring country . Therefore, as it were, instead of the practice of mutual exchanges of gifts on one day of Valentine’s Day in other countries, we may have two separate days for that practice.
In addition, we now have a much newer practice style of chocolate gifts for the Valentine’s Day; It started just so recently especially among young girls that a girl gives chocolates to female friends in token of an ordinary female friendship. This new type of chocolate gift is called ” Tomo-choko”(/友チョコ, a chocolate for a friend).
Considering those historical processes of the development or evolution of the quite unique styles of the Japanese way of celeberating the St. Valentine’s Day, like other cultural items and aspects, Japanese culture has prominent potential to accept and refine any new or latest foreign-originated cultural things to make them more ” distinctive Japanese culture”.
Personally, on this 14th, I got only two “giri-choko” , one of which was given by my mother !… and no honmei-choko at all… Iam eagerly looking forward to being able to receive a “homei-choko” next year !!
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5 Responses to “How to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day in Japan”
Comment from ＴＥＲＲＹ
Time 16/02/2010 at 15:39
>Makoto-san
Thanks for your comment. I agree with you, though there may be females who would disagree with us 🙂 As for the reliable source of the historical back story of the White Day, as I wrote here on this page’s text, 石村萬盛堂（Ishimura Manseidou）’s official website refers to the point. here is the URL http://www.whiteday314.jp/.
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Comment from Tenkaijapan
Time 16/02/2010 at 09:12
Hi,Terry
I think Valentine’s Day is pretty much for women. They can give a less expensive present in the long run.
A lot of websites say that White Day was invented by a marshmallow company in the ’60s as a way to increase sales, but I can’t find any reliable source for this explanation.
Can you find out that??
Makoto