Japanese Girls to Boycott ‘Valentine’s Day’ over ‘Obligation Chocolate’

This year most of the girls in Japan will boycott Valentine’s Day for a workplace tradition, which dictates female colleagues to gift chocolates to their male colleagues on the day. While men are supposed to reciprocate a month after on 14th March celebrated as White Day. The tradition is popularly known as ‘giri choco’ in Japan, which means ‘obligation chocolates’.

With the growing anger at the practice of forced giving, some companies are also banning the practice at their place of work, which is now seen by many as a form of abuse of power and harassment.

In a survey conducted by a Tokyo based departmental store recently, it is found that more than 60 percent of women will buy chocolates as a personal treat on February 14 this year. More than 50 percent of women said they would give the chocolates to their family members instead, while 36 percent would make the same gesture towards their partners. Only 35 percent has said they will hand out chocolates to men at their workplace.

One of the surveyors said, "Before the ban, we had to worry about things like how much is appropriate to spend on each chocolate and where we draw the line in who we give the chocolates to, so it’s good that we no longer have this culture of forced giving”.

In the mid-1950s giving chocolate as Valentine’s Day gifts took off commercially in Japan, which also led to the growth of the chocolate industry into a multimillion-dollar market and which provides the chocolate manufacturers of Japan, a sizeable amount of their annual sales in just a matter of few days.

Last year just ahead of the Valentine’s Day, the Belgian chocolatier Godiva caused a ripple across the country when it published a full-page newspaper ad urging businesses to encourage female employees not to hand out 'giri choco' if they felt they were doing so under pressure. The ad was published with this message, “Valentine’s Day is a day when people convey their true feelings, not coordinate relationships at work”. 

In spite of all boycotts, this year Japan Airlines will hand out chocolates to passengers both male and female on board all its domestic and international flights on February 14, while a hot spring resort near Tokyo is going to unveil a bath filled with steaming ‘chocolate water’ to celebrate the Valentine Day. So anyway it is going to be a Chocolaty Valentine’s Day in Japan.