Annual survey shows nearly a 70-percent increase in two years for number of Japanese women giving chocolate on Valentine’s Day.

We recently talked about how the custom of sending nengajo, or New Year’s cards, is becoming less common in Japan…but also about how many have regretted quitting the tradition, not realizing how much it had meant to them until they stopped. There’s another opportunity to give the special people in your life a little something to show you care coming up soon, though, with one survey showing that the popularity of giving Valentine’s Day chocolate is on the rise in Japan.

Japanese confectionary company Meiji holds an annual survey on Valentine’s Day chocolate, collecting responses from approximately 1,000 Japanese women, as Valentine’s Day is a time for girls to give chocolate to guys in Japan. In 2023, 23.3 percent of the participants said they gave either hand-made or store-bought chocolate to someone. That number grew to 33.4 percent in 2024, and for 2025 it climbed even higher, with 39.5 percent of the respondents saying they’d given someone chocolate.

That’s nearly a 70 percent increase in just two years, so what happened in that time period? The coronavirus pandemic was likely a major factor. In 2022, Japan still had a lot of COVID protocols in place, and the Japanese school and work year starting in the spring, a lot of those continued to affect social interactions through the 2023 Valentine’s season. By the back half of 2023, though, pandemic precautions were largely swept away, with returns to classrooms, offices, and other shared spaces engendering the sort of warm interpersonal relationships conducive to Valentine’s Day chocolate gift-giving, and undoubtedly making people feel less skittish about the idea of giving or receiving home-made food.

The “tomo choco,” or “friend chocolate,” social phenomenon also likely played a role. Traditionally on Valentine’s Day in Japan women give gifts to men, both romantic partners such as a boyfriend or husband but also to platonic male coworkers and classmates as a show of thanks for general help or consideration during the year. In recent years, though, a growing number of women have also been giving chocolate to their female friends on Valentine’s Day, something that’s more fun to do in-person when it becomes an exchange of sweet gifts.

Odds are we’ll be seeing even more Valentine’s Day chocolate being given this year, and hopefully there’ll be enough going around that our lovelorn reporter won’t have to go begging for a piece again.

Source: PR Times
Top image: Pakutaso
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