1/27/2005

So what will you give to your loved one on Valentine’s day? In Japan, if you are a guy, the answer is easy: nothin’!! Because here, Valentine’s day is when GIRLS give guys presents. And not any present: chocolate.

And not any chocolate either. In general, these chocolate are divided into two types: giri choco (obligatory chocolate) and honmei choco (chocolate for the man the woman is serious about). Giri choco is given by women to their superiors at work as well as to other male co-workers. If a woman is not an office lady and she actually has friends, she would give chocolate to her male friends. A woman will usually buy a few boxes of giri choco in the several hundred yen range, and may give a more expensive box of honmei choco (and sometimes another gift, but it doesn’t seem that frequent) for her “special someone”.

In the 1980’s was introduced “White Day”, which comes one month later, on March 14th, when men who were lucky enough to receive chocolate gifts on Valentine’s day usually give to the women who gave them chocolate a more expensive box of chocolate or something more elaborate if they have a bit of imagination.

Of course, both are something that every shops, even convenient stores, look forward to and promote shamelessly with all kind of chocolate-based sweets, starting from mid-January onward.

So, you guessed it, many brands come up with special flavored chocolate on these occasions, limited edition of course, and promote them actively for about two months. And so did Nestlé this year. After the “lemon cheese cake” and the “macha” (traditional Japanese powder green tea) variations that you cannot find anywhere else than Japan, here comes the “passionfruit” KitKat, designed by very un-famous “Le Patissier Takagi”, especially for Valentine’s day (as one can easily understand from the hundreds of yellow hearts on the box.

It doesn’t taste bad and since KitKat is fairly popular in Japan anyway, I am sure this particular version will sell well this season.