Love is all around at this time of year, but on Valentine¡¯s Day in Japan it isn¡¯t so evenly distributed. The festival of romance has long suffered from a gender imbalance here: Feb. 14 is traditionally a day for women to give presents to men ¡ª not just their partners, but also often fellow students, coworkers, family members or other hangers-on (such gifts are aptly termed giri-choko, or ¡°obligation chocolates¡°).
A month later, the fellows are expected to repay in kind, on what¡¯s known as White Day ¡ª a festival that might feel more meaningful if it hadn¡¯t been instituted by the National Confectionary Industry Association in 1978.
Maybe that¡¯s why Japanese men tend to look forward to Valentine¡¯s Day more than their female counterparts. In a recent survey of more than 3,000 people in their 20s and 30s, two-thirds of men reported that they were expecting love to bloom on Feb. 14; in contrast, nearly half of the women answered that they weren¡¯t.
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