The standard practice for valentine’s day in japan is a bit different from the West where usually men buy chocolate or flowers for women. It’s the exact opposite in fact. In Japan, Valentine’s day means women buy chocolate for men. Honmei choko (hon-may-cho-ko) — love chocolate — for their boyfriends and husbands and giri choko (gee-ree-cho-ko) — obligation chocolate — for their boss and coworkers. The first is somewhat optional, but the second is more or less required. Such is life for women at a Japanese company.

But this year things may be changing. I read an interesting blurb in the japantimes today about how the practice of giving tomo choko (toh-moh-cho-ko) — friendship chocolate — is increasing at the expense of love chocolate. In a survey shown in the paper, 74% of women plan to give tomo choko to a girlfriend but only 32% intend to buy anything for their boyfriend (buying for their husband isn’t mentioned).