Meanings of Chocolate: Power and Gender in Valentine's Gift Giving

Abstract  Valentine's Day as practiced in contemporary Japan constitutes a cultural puzzle. Comparison of Japanese and American Valentine's Days using data collected through interviews with twenty Japanese and twenty Americans reveals three customs peculiar to the Japanese holiday: an emphasis on chocolate; exclusively women-to-men gift giving; and the prevalence of giving "obligatory chocolate" within offices. Although chocolate companies' promotional activities go a long way toward explaining the first custom and arguably the second, women giving chocolate to male colleagues and supervisors is an adaptation of the original formula made by the participants themselves. Because Valentine chocolate is a highly symbolic gift with the message "I admire you," whether or not they receive chocolate matters to men. By imbuing the gift with meanings which men find difficult to ignore, women are able to enjoy a temporary power over men. The study strongly asserts the cultural freedom people possess in creating new meanings from available codes.