Howaito De

I know, Nicholas,

Quite a lot has been written about White Day. And when I say "a lot," I mean that White Day returns almost 4.5 million hits on Google (re: "White Day" in quotation marks) and has two lengthy articles on Wikipedia

¹ One on the Valentine's Day page in addition to its very own page.

¹.

Undoubtedly, White Day is is one of those peculiarly "Japanese" holidays that just piques American interest because, when coupled with Valentine's Day, it seems just familiar enough to recognize, while also remaining distinctly Japanese to a point that really stresses the constructed nature of holidays. Part of the astounding interest in White Day does appear to be the sheer arbitrary origin of holidays and the way it clearly illustrates how one culture can appropriate (or misappropriate) aspects of another and the awkward and interesting ways that these sorts of things find expression.


Another aspect that drives White Day's importance among the inter-cultural oeuvre are the cultural assumptions about Valentine's Day and White Day. The fact that both cultures celebrate a "Valentine's Day" on February 14th leads many to believe that the holidays would, thusly, both celebrate them exactly the same, which leads bloggers to write one harrowing story after another about misadventures with chocolates and gifts and miscommunication. Thusly, Valentine's Day acts as one of those "life application stories" that illustrates the importance of cross-cultural dialog and grace.

But, if by the end of those paragraphs you, as I did, still find yourself asking "what is White Day, and why was I expected to know about White Day," let me take the time to explain. But, first, we have to start with Saint Valentine's Day.

As is with anything that Japan has adopted from America, we really have to forget everything we know about our version of the holiday and look at it from an appropriated perspective.

Perhaps the biggest advantage to appropriating any idea--holidays included--is that you can take what you like and modify or leave what you don't with the advantage of time and perspective.

When Japan looked at the long list of great American ideas and finally got down to the Vs, between Vaccination Needles and Velcro, at Valentine's Day they knew they had a gem on their hands. After all, if you were a Japanese manufacturer of confectionaries and cutesy trinkets

² Which surely makes up around 99% of Japan's domestic commerce.

², what is there not to like about a holiday predicated on monetary expressions of love and devotion?

In 1936, Morozoff Ltd. of Kobe began running advertisements aimed at expats living in Japan, pointing out to them that, even though they're in Japan, there is still a February. The ads reminded these foreigners that it was time to buy Morozoff heart-shaped chocolates (and only Morozoff heart-shaped chocolates) for their loved ones. However, when Japanese companies attempted to capitalize on the potential of Valentine's Day, for one reason or another this trend was picked up only by women who were summarily directed to buy chocolates as expressions of their love. Wikipedia, that bastion of knowledge and truth, claims that this mono-directionality was due to a translational error in communicating the core values of the traditional American Valentine's Day during the initial campaigns in the '30s. Conveniently, this was never corrected and had become thoroughly entrenched by the time the holiday really took off post-war in the 50s as Japan attempted to expand their investment in Western cultural ideas.

For the most part, only chocolates are given on Valentine's Day

³ The Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia reports that chocolatiers make about half of their entire annual sales at or around Valentine's Day.

³, with Christmas Eve being the customary "date night" that would most closely resemble the American Valentine's Day tradition.

However, as only Japan is wont to do, it's never quite so easy as merely giving chocolates to the one you love: it's about giving the right kind and quantity.

More or less, there are two "types" of chocolate one can give/receive: giri-chocolates (義理チョコ) and honmei-chocolates (本命チョコ). Let's just say that the word "giri" is best translated as "obligation," and suffice it to say that I came away with about five boxes of giri-chocolates (all of which were delicious, by the way).

Giri-chocolates (sometimes called "fake chocolates") are the chocolates you give out of cultural obligation. You know, the chocolates you would buy for all the males you know and whom you don't want to leave feeling "left out."

On the other hand, honmei-chocolates are often hand made with special care and attention for a special someone. Giri-chocolates are chocolates you buy for friends. Honmei-chocolates are chocolates for lovers.

Or at least for boys you want to be your lover.


And this is how it was for many years. Women would buy chocolates as silent expressions of their love and obligation, and men got fat and sometimes went crazy trying to figure out just what to make of this complex chocolate-code.

But then the '80s came along and everyone

⁴ Chocolate retailers, especially.

⁴ realized that men had been getting away without making a proper お返し ("payback"). Apparently, a number of attempts had been made at "offering" men the opportunity to okaeshi, with little coming of concepts like "Marshmallow Day."

What caught on, however, was nothing less than the wicked machinations of an all-star marketing braintrust: a commercial masterpiece of cold cultural calculation. The idea that slithered its way out of the doors of Keio Plaza Hotel one cold day in 1978 was "愛に答える White Day": "Answer Love on White Day."

And, henceforth, every Valentine's Day chocolate merited a response. For every Valentine's giri-chocolate, for every hand-made confection, there was now appointed an appropriate White Day gift to be returned a month later on March 14th. At an evaluated rate of return of 三倍返し (sanbai gaeshi), literally around 3:1.

Just. Like. That.

Of course, it's easy to read into that rate of return as payback. In fact, a popular saying in terms of White Day is "海老で鯛を釣る," which simply means "using a minnow to catch a tuna" (literally, "a shrimp to catch a sea bream"). This is not an unexpected accusation despite the fact that most chocolates are given in attempts to express thoughtfulness, albeit through culturally prescribed means. The phrase, however, despite likely being rooted in selfishness and privilege, raises the question about the heart of the giver and their intentions.

And while there may very well be a number of gold-digging women out there hoping to catch a tuna or two with a pocket full of minnows, I would venture to guess that not all Japanese women are gold-diggers. But at the very least we know that the Japanese candy companies are.

Of course, pointing out the calculated machinations of a commercially contrived holiday does not absolve one of cultural and relational expectations. All I know for a fact is that I have less than one month to get together a dozen boxes of three-times more expensive giri-chocolates.