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The Japanese oppose a tradition that requires them to give chocolates to their male colleagues on Valentine's Day, with growing anger over the practice of "forced giving".
Until recently, women in the workplace were supposed to buy chocolates for their male colleagues as part of a tradition called giri choco – obligatory chocolates.
Men are expected to return the same on March 14, the White Day – an event imagined by chocolate makers in the early 80's to boost sales.
But there is more and more evidence that giri choco falls out of favor.
For a growing number of people, the pressure to avoid shocking by spending thousands of yen on chocolates for colleagues becomes intolerable. Some companies now ban this practice, which is considered by many workers as a form of abuse of power and harbadment.
A survey revealed that over 60% of women would buy chocolates as a personal treat on February 14th. More than 56% said they would give chocolates to family members, while 36% would make the same gesture to their partners or objects of a crush.
According to a survey conducted by a Tokyo department store, however, it was far from their thoughts that staying next to colleagues was far from the center. Only 35% of them had announced their intention to distribute chocolate treats to men at their workplace.
"Before the ban, we had to know how much it was appropriate to spend for each chocolate and where we would tell to whom we were giving the chocolates. So it's good to no longer have this culture of forced giving, "one of the office workers surveyed said, according to the Japan Today website.
SoraNews24, meanwhile, reported the recent phenomenon of gyaku choco – the inverted chocolate – in which men give chocolates to their husbands, girlfriends or future lovers.
In Japan, in the mid-1950s, chocolate offered as a Valentine's Day gift took off and turned into a multi-million dollar market offering some manufacturers a significant share of their sales. annuals in just a few days.
But the reaction against giri choco prompted some confectioners to reorganize their marketing campaigns.
As Valentine's Day approaches last year, the Belgian chocolatier Godiva caused a sensation by publishing a one-page advertisement in a newspaper inviting companies to encourage female employees not to distribute giri choco if they had the impression of doing it under duress.
"Valentine's Day is a day when people express their true feelings, not working relationships," she said.
While individual consumers are evaluating their gift options, Valentine's collective obsession with chocolate in Japan is gaining momentum as the day approaches.
Japan Airlines will distribute chocolates to pbadengers – men and women – on all of its domestic and international flights on Feb. 14, while a spa located near Tokyo has unveiled a bath filled with water boiling chocolate.
But Valentine's most unlikely gimmick award is to be awarded to a chain of sushi restaurants whose customers will be offered flakes of high-tailed flounder mixed with chocolate.
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