Sweet romance: Japanese boys start buying into gift giving on Valentine’s Day

<p>Women are traditionally expected to buy chocolates for male colleagues on Valentine’s Day but teenage boys are shunning the one-sided custom</p><p>It has been several years since Japanese women first <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/japanese-women-push-back-against-valentines-tradition-of-obligation-chocolate">signalled their contempt</a> for the long tradition of showering male colleagues with chocolates on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/valentines-day">Valentine’s Day</a>. Now the country’s young people are slaying another sacred cow associated with Friday’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/13/valentines-day-may-be-the-worlds-most-hated-holiday-but-i-wont-be-joining-the-pile-on">orgy of commercialised romance</a>: one-sided gift giving.</p><p>Traditionally, women are expected to buy gift-wrapped chocolates for the men in their working lives, usually senior colleagues and others to whom they feel indebted – a tradition called <em>giri choco</em>, literally “obligation chocolates”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/14/valentines-day-japan-boys-men-gift-giving-tradition">Continue reading...</a>