The Japanese practice of women gifting sweets to men on Feb 14 can be traced to a specific event held in February 1958, when Mary Chocolate Co Ltd organized a special sales campaign at a department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo. 

As the practice took root in Japan over the ensuing decades, the market size continued swell, reaching an estimated 126 billion yen in 2019 before dropping to 117.5 billion yen in 2022, due to the COVID pandemic. 

But Weekly Playboy (Feb 24) claims the 67-year tradition is now in the process of major change. 

In a survey of 250 males, the magazine posed the question, "Over the previous three years, did you receive a gift on Valentine's Day?" The highest positive response, 68%, was given by teenagers. But from males in their 20s onwards, the figure drops sharply, from 44% of the respondents in their 20s and 30s to 42% in their 40s, to 34% in their 50s. (Gifts from members of one's own family were disregarded in the survey.) 

"The COVID pandemic seems to have played a major role," a company employee in his 50s told the reporter. "That's because during those years, people were even hesitant to pass documents to someone else by hand. But I think the custom's declining now, along with sending out nengajo (new year's greeting cards). 

"About 20 years ago, I received so many giri chokoreto (obligatory chocolates)  that I had to research how to please women with reciprocal gifts on White Day (March 14). Now the way of doing things has become more relaxed," a fiftyish company worker told the magazine. 

The traditional Feb 14 practice, however, now appears to be in decline, particularly among Japan's younger generation. 

As evidence, the magazine cites a survey by the seamint, a market research firm that monitors Gen Z, in which 30.8% of the 389 female middle- and high-school students who took part said they had the experience of receiving a gift from a member of the opposite sex on Valentine's Day. 

"Today's teenagers and people in their 20s tend not to be bound by gender stereotypes or romantic supremacy, so Valentine's Day is no longer limited to 'a day for women to confess their feelings to men,' but is enjoyed in a variety of ways, such as presenting chocolates to favorite partners or friends," said Hikari Asahina, president of seamint.

Asahina continued: "In fact, in a survey by our company targeting female junior and senior high school students, about 30% of them answered that they had 'received a gift from a man on Valentine's Day.' This suggests that the gender sensibilities of givers and receivers of chocolates are becoming more flexible than in the past." 

"I give chocolates to attractive boys, or those who excel at sports, as a way of showing that I like or support them. But that doesn't mean I want to go out with them or have any kind of high expectations," a high school student explained. 

"I attended an international high school," said a university co-ed, "and once I was given flowers from an American boy on Valentine's Day. I was sort of surprised that his gift wasn't chocolate, but I was really happy about the thought behind it." 

So it would seem then that as more Japanese females become aware that the common Valentine's Day practice in foreign countries calls for males to present chocolates and other gifts to females, a gradual shift in this direction may now be occurring.

"Owing to the wide dissemination of smartphones and social networks, an environment has been created for in which girls share photos of their homemade chocolates," said seamint's Asahina. "So Valentine's Day is becoming established as an event that can be enjoyed more freely and casually." 

"Since last year, 'Heisei Girls Chocolate' has become a hot topic on social media," Asahina added. "The image of 'homemade chocolates made by melting store-bought chocolate and pouring it into a mold,' which girls in the Heisei era would make for Valentine's Day, has been revived as a 'nostalgic yet new' trend coupled with the boom in retro. 

"Who knows," she smiles. "Maybe some kind of entirely new idea will pop up this year."  

The ways in which members of Japan's younger generation observe Valentine's Day might be changing, the writer concludes, but it's still likely to remain a major annual event.