The tradition of using St. Valentine's Day as a chance to express one's affections to others has been adopted wholesale and retail by the Japanese. Like all other imported customs, however, it has been given a unique and characteristically Japanese spin.

In the Japanese tradition, which goes back as far as, oh, twenty years or so now, it is almost universal to give some form of chocolate as a gift. This idea has been strongly encouraged by the confection industry, which sells tons and tons and more tons of really bad chocolate on this occasion. In the week or so before Valentine's day, department stores and food stores of all kinds begin to display heaps, mounds and mountains of gift-wrapped chocolate in all shapes and sizes, with prices ranging from a hundred yen (about one US dollar) to over 10,000 yen.

Another distinguishing thing is that the giving is completely one-sided: the girls and women give to the boys and men. A male buying chocolate at this time might generate giggles. Worse yet, the chocolate-giving has become less of a display of personal affection and more of just another of the several official opportunities to return favors and perform obligatory gift-giving to bosses and others who are above you in the up-down relationships that everyone is locked into. This has become so pervasive that in recent years, people have started to distinguish between "giri-choko" (obligation chocolate) and the more sincere type of gift, which is generally still chocolate, but either very expensive or hand-made. (Thanks Brazil.)

Of course the one-sidedness of Valentine's Day giving has not gone unnoticed in Japan, where it is very bad form to receive a gift or other favor without giving something in return. It was therefore the National Association of Confectioners in Japan decided in 1978 to have an official Valentine pay-back day called White Day. On White Day, which conveniently comes one month after Valentine's Day, men give chocolate to women.