Valentine’s Day
Japan that women give them to men, she said.
“We can also boost their pride” by giving them chocolates on Valentine’s Day, she added.
Although Japan is one of the world’s most efficient and high-tech societies, marketeers have exploited the country’s rigid gender roles and social pressures to conform.
Valentine’s Day first appeared in Japan in the late 1950s when a firm called Mary Chocolate advertised February 14 as “the only day of the year a woman professes her love through presenting chocolate” — establishing it as Japan’s currency of romance.
But confectionery maker Ezaki Glico said in its 2016 report that only 8.7 per cent of 312 female respondents gave chocolates to the men they love.
In a sign of equality, however, the country next month celebrates White Day, a Japanese event confectioners cooked up in the 1980s to keep the cash tills ringing that sees men buy a white gift such as vanilla cookies, marshmallows and handkerchiefs for the women in their lives.
Marie Kondo, 24, bought nearly 30 boxes of chocolates for the men in her office, forking out a total of 10,000 yen.
“But I’m going to spend more for myself,” she said, adding that she plans to buy chocolates from Sadaharu Aoki, a high-end Japanese chocolatier.
“To me, Valentine’s Day is not a day to confess love.”