Top 10 Valentine’s Gifts

According to Japanese men

Much like Christmas, Valentine’s Day in Asia is a commercial holiday which focuses around the act of gift giving to loved ones. Thanks to effective marketing campaigns by confectionery companies, Valentine’s Day is handled even more differently in Japan than the rest of Asia.

On Valentine’s Day, it is necessary for woman to give chocolates to guys they are interested in. While men are obliged to reply with more expensive gifts a month later on March 14’s “White Day”. It is also customary for women to give chocolates to male workers and not unusual for young girls to give chocolates to each other as friends.

Only in recent years have other gifts been considered. A survey of Japanese men on their most desired Valentine’s Day gifts gave the following results.

Chocolate still remains the most popular Valentine’s gift. There are also some endearing results such as having a meal together, a homemade meal or sweater. There are also some popular results that really get you wondering such as money or alcohol. On the bottom of the list were clothing items like a bag, belt or suit.

It is believed that the practice of only women giving gifts was started when local confectionery companies made a typo mistake in the advertisement posters when attempting to introduce Valentine’s Day to Japan back in 1936. To further increase output, companies later created the concept of White Day in the 1980s.

Statistics courtesy of Goo Ranking.