Feeling sorry for the women who did all the chocolate-themed giving in Japan on Valentine’s Day? Don’t worry. They reap a return on investment exactly one month later, on White Day (March 14).
On this holiday, men give reciprocal gifts worth two to three times the value of the Valentine’s Day chocolates they received. Brilliantly, this campaign was started by the National Confectionery Industry Association when it was looking to offload marshmallows and white chocolate.
(Although non-edible gifts such as jewelry and lingerie are now popular White Day presents as well.) On March 14, in Japan, Taiwan, and even South Korea, people will be celebrating a kind of second Valentine’s Day, known as White Day.
While Valentine’s Day in the West is a give-and-receive event, where couples exchange chocolates and gifts, it works a bit differently in Japan and other countries.
The last few weeks in Tokyo have seen stores displaying and selling white chocolate, various marshmallow confectionaries, and assorted gifts (usually in white packages) for this big event. So what is this white-themed holiday, and where did originate from?
The fast and short answer is that White Day is the male counterpart to Valentine’s Day in Japan, where the tradition is that women give expensive chocolates to men they’re romantically involved with, and cheaper chocolates to their coworkers, bosses, and sometimes older brothers.
White Day may not be as big as a retail holiday as Valentine’s Day, but in 2014 it was nearly a $578 million market.
According to the United States Department of Commerce and other sources, White Day is actually the invention of a small confectionery shop, Ishimura Manseido, in the Hakata region in the 1970s. In 1977, an executive of the company, Zengo Ishimura, was reading a woman’s magazine looking for inspiration.
One letter caught his attention. A woman wrote, “It’s not fair that men get chocolate from women on Valentine’s Day, but they don’t return the favor.
Why don’t they give us something? A handkerchief, candy, even marshmallows. Ishimura reasoned, if women would be happy to receive even marshmallows in return for their Valentine’s Day gifts, why not invent a special day for men so that they could express their gratitude?
He also concocted a new sweet to express that sentiment, made of marshmallow paste with chocolate stuffed inside.
