How to Avoid a Valentine's Day Disaster with Valentine Insurance - Japanese Style
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Everybody's trying to ensure that they have wonderful Valentine, this coming Friday. Our Kenyan culture, basically follows Western traditions, with the Guy presenting flowers, chocolates and gifts.
Things are quite different though in the "Land of The Rising Sun"! The Japanese are long known for their adherence to traditions, and even adopting them to modern times.
Valentine's Day and White Day in Japan
By: Billy Hammond
The Japanese celebrate St. Valentine's day in a rather unique fashion. Women give the men gifts of chocolate as well as other gifts.
These gifts of chocolate are divided into three types:
- giri choco (obligatory chocolate),
- honmei choco (chocolate for the man the woman is serious about), and
- tomo choco (chocolate for the woman's female friends)..
Giri choco is given by women to their superiors at work as well as to other male co-workers. It is not unusual for a woman to buy 20 to 30 boxes of this type of chocolate for distribution around the office as well as to men that she has regular contact with.
Tomo choco is a fairly recent development having appeared on the scene in the past few years.
Needless to say, the approach of Valentine's Day is something that department stores and shops look forward to and promote with zeal because of its potential for increased sales. Large displays featuring chocolate usually with heart-shaped displays start to grace the floors of department stores from mid-January or so.
A woman will normally purchase boxes of giri choco in the several hundred yen range and may purchase an expensive box of honmei choco and another gift such as a necktie for her "special someone". For her female friends, she generally chooses something in the medium price range that she would enjoy eating herself.
While all of this may seem quite one-sided, confectioners in Japan - never ones to miss an opportunity to sell more - took advantage of the Japanese feelings of obligation and created "White Day" in 1980 to help assuage the guilt feelings of those poor obligated males who received chocolate on Valentine's Day. On March 14th, exactly one month after Valentine's Day, men who were lucky enough to receive gifts of chocolate have the chance to return the favor by giving the women who gave them gifts of chocolate a more expensive box of chocolate or sweets (for some reason or other, these return gifts seem to be priced slightly higher than those the women purchase). Again, the stores provide plenty of reminders of the approach of this day so that even the most forgetful man cannot say that it slipped his mind. The gifts of chocolate that men buy are in white boxes (after all, it is "White Day") and come with separate shopping bags to put them in.
By: Billy Hammond
Source: http://tanutech.com/japan/valentine.html
Now Japan's equivalent of Kenya's "Flower Council" is trying to encourage Japanese to buy flowers during this Valentine Season.
Chocolate or Flowers on Valentine’s Day?
The less romantic in Japan have long complained about Valentine’s Day, saying it is little more than a commercial ploy to sell chocolate during a quiet time of the year for the economy.
In a cultural quirk, Valentine’s Day has become an occasion in Japan when girls and women approach boys and men with chocolate gifts as a token of their love. The boys are supposed to wait one month to reciprocate in what some see as an even more manufactured holiday, White Day on March 14.
The nation’s fresh-flower industry sees an opportunity in all this. It has been on a quest to involve men and to turn Valentine’s Day into an occasion to give flowers instead of–or as well as—chocolates, a common custom in other countries.
“We’ve been encouraging men to give flowers to their girlfriends and wives. Japanese men hardly buy flowers. By educating them, we can expand our market base,” said Noriko Ogawa, a florist who has been managing a long-running campaign called Flower Valentine. Roughly 8,500, or more than a third of Japan’s some 20,000 flower shops, have participated, promoting the men-giving-flowers-to-women custom since 2011.
But despite three years of campaigning by the florists, chocolate still accounts for roughly half of the estimated ¥130 billion ($1.24 billion) Valentine’s Day-related spending, according to figures by the Chocolate & Cocoa Association of Japan and the Japan Anniversary Association.
“We are yet no match for chocolate when it comes to sales. Still, we are developing new customers by using the Valentine’s Day as a gateway,” Ms. Ogawa told Japan Real Time.
Mary Chocolate Co. says on its website that it started Japan’s tradition of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in the late 1950s. Until then, women approaching men had been frowned upon. However, Mary Chocolate rolled out a heart-shaped chocolate with the message: “Girls, Confess Your Love to Your Guys. This Is a Once-a-Year Occasion.”
More than six decades on, girls are less inclined to wait for Valentine’s Day to confess their love. Instead, Valentine’s Day has evolved into an extravagant, all-generation chocolate festival. Girls give chocolate to their grandparents or to their friends at school. Wealthy Japanese buy fancy European chocolates for themselves or exchange them with friends. There is no need for romantic love to enjoy the occasion, said a spokeswoman at high-end department store Takashimaya.
Yasuko Fujita, deputy director general of the Chocolate & Cocoa Association, said that unlike the hot and humid Japanese summer, winter is a good season for chocolate. “Valentine’s Day serves as a great occasion to consume good chocolate at the best time of year,” she said.
Follow Mari Iwata on Twitter @mariiwatawsj
Source: Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/02/10/chocolate-or-flowers-on-valentines-day/
With all these traditional intricacies, here's how Japanese men save themselves the social stigma of missing out on a date. By taking out Valentine Insurance...
Avoid a Valentine’s Day disaster with Valentine’s insurance
TOKYO —
There’s only 10 days until Valentine’s Day. For many men in Japan, it is a day of unease and loneliness. That’s because on Valentine’s Day in Japan, only women give presents to men, usually in the form of chocolate.
So much chocolate is given out that Japanese chocolate companies record half of their annual sales in the weeks prior to Valentine’s Day. With all this chocolate exchanging hands, what happens to the poor slob who doesn’t receive a single chocolate? That’s where Valentine’s insurance steps in; making sure you’ll avoid the pain of not receiving anything on Valentine’s Day.
This service is simple: the insurance policyholder will receive a package on Feb 14 containing chocolates and a personal message from self-professed beautiful lady, Rieko.
Valentine’s Day insurance eliminates the unease of not receiving anything on Valentine’s Day, providing the policyholder with a pleasant experience.
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Purchasing Valentine’s insurance only costs 500 yen. However, we’re not sure what’s worse: the feeling of not receiving chocolate on February 14th or having to pay a stranger to send you some.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Source: ITmedia
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/avoid-a-valentines-day-disaster-with-valentines-insurance
Okay, lets offer a "localized" lifeline to all the lonely guys this festive season.
- Know who you're dealing with
- Its just another day
- The singles can have fun too
- It's a great day for flattery
Source: http://uk.askmen.com/dating/player_200/210_love_games.html
Happy Valentine!
May your Valentine's Gift to your Loved One, include some form of Life Insurance! Our policy, at First Liberty Insurance Agency, is to help you assess your Insurance requirements based upon You & Your Loved One's NEEDS!
