Japan's RIDICULOUS Gift Giving Rules 

I’ve heard that in Korea, there’s also an unofficial “Black Day” on April 14 where people who did not receive gifts on either Valentine’s Day or White Day go out to eat this noodle dish with a black sauce and bitch to each other about their non-existent love lives

So tomo-choco happened when some poor girl chickened out and said "no homo" at the last second so hard it created a national movement, right?

Honmei = True Feelings Giri = Obligatory Tomo = Friend

This is like Valentine's day in elementary school. You give candy to your whole class if you want to give some to anyone.

So that means every single guy will have to face the fact that they are single every year because they got none of home made choco. Man, teens longing for love in japan got it hard.

Meanwhile in Mexico: Okay, we're going to Angela's house first, then Maria's, then Julia's and finally Marco's because one of our guys is gay. Alright, grab your guitars and trumpets, we're going serenading. Something tells me the Japanese would find a way to spreadsheet this too.

‘Or just say sike and dont date her anymore‘ Connor’s words of wisdom

This is why having waifus is so much easier.

Even Chocolate is a bureaucratic nightmare in Japan....

In American elementary schools, its super common for the students to buy every one candy on Valentine’s Day. Like for example, they get a big box of fun dip and bring it to school to give it to their classmates. Is it like that for other countries, or is this just a US thing?

I give chocolates to myself cuz im so single

Just highlights Japan’s absolute OBSESSION with every tier of relationship a human can have. Different gifts for your male coworkers, versus your FEMALE coworkers, versus your neighbor, versus your teacher, versus your classmates you don’t know that well, versus classmates you DO know well, versus your boss, versus your significant other. Just....it’s too much Japan, please stop. Also, many people’s love language is not “receiving gifts” for me personally it really would not do very much for me at all. Plus I should be able to get a single person a gift without feeling bad for leaving out other people. This gift is for them, I don’t have a gift for joe-schmoe over here sorry, not sorry.

One time in elementary I watched the whole class give each other candy. I got 2 pieces because they took pity on me. Good times. Thanks for the wonderful memories.

1:15 the way Connor and Garnt look at each other LMAO im dead

To my understanding, Honmei these days need not necessarily and literally mean actual homemade chocolate. Not every girl knows how to cook but at the same time, they don't want their present to come across as cheap to the ones they have feelings for. I think that's where stores come in where some select bakeries would offer up certain chocolates in limited supply. These days, "honmei" used to mean "homemade" but it also means "special"

I feel like Valentine's Day in the west is more about guys giving flowers and stuff to girls. Like I think it should be both genders giving gifts to each other but in my experience in the US, girls don't really give guys anything for Valentine's Day

as an American this could be summarized as giving Hersheys/Reeses, giving Lindt/Godiva, giving handcrafted boutique truffles in a fancy box. I get it we just never codified it into rules lol

Personal philosophy: End all expected gift giving. Spontaneous gift giving only. Everyone is happier, the gifts are better, there's no stress, and it means the gifter either really wanted to give the giftee a gift (and thus went out of their way to find an appropriate gift), spontaneously give the giftee something of theirs, or was thinking about the giftee enough that they saw something that reminded them of the giftee and bought it for them. I say this as someone who's reasonably good at giving gifts, but doing it on a holiday where it's expected is the worst time of the year to give a gift.

The 2 standard chocolate are basically the same as the US does kinda, where people in middle school will give their entire class a store bought valentine but then may give their crush a better or handmade card.

My Japan Valentine story: Back in the mid - late 2000s I lived in Kokubinji, and worked as a 3D Animator for Xebec. I had this big time crush on the Admin lady who practically helped settle in Tokyo and the company. Back then I wasn't caught up on watching anime, so i wasn't really aware of the whole valentines - day white day situation. So when I just randomly showed up at the admin office to hand her some store bought chocos - all the other employees in the dept were standing up, peeking out of their cubicles with a "wtf is the gaijin doing" look on their faces. She embarrassingly accepted, but handed me a note in broken engrish a day later explaining the whole white day valentines thing... Me being dense thought - "OH I should give her chocos again on March 14" ... which I did lol - repeating the whole embarrassing situation.... plot twist: After that - I ended up dating the cashier of a Lawson conbini near where I lived

In india theres an unofficial hit day on feb 15th when everyone just beats the shut out of that one friend who scored on valentines Day

Wonder how tasty the 3 different chocolates are 🤔

u should do some food or shopping vlog series

Going to go Japan and make up for lack of gifts I've had in my life so far get in

Ah! I didn't know about that 3rd kind of chocolate and was pretty confused by the valentines day ep of Isekai Quartet

There's also joke chocolate which I've seen recently in manga and stuff

Basically Japan has tier list for everything maybe it's the same reason why they have good quality things

Oh yeah! I think I have seen that, in anime where people gift even friends and family chocolate out of mutual respect or some shiz, on valentine's day.. Honestly I like the idea of being given chocolate on a platonic basis. The problem is, I'd rather eat chocolate I buy than give it to anyone else if I can help it.

We have something similar to this in the U.S. to White Day it's big in the Midwest called Sweetest Day. It's like a more casual Valentine's day. It's the 3rd Saturday in October so it bounces around.

The example of the chocolate bad mc pretend is weirldy ironic because that scene from acchi kochi (place to place) is where the girl intentionaly placed frog meat in it to mess with the boys in the example

2:59 Did Joey mean to say platonic relationship?

you guys are underestimating the upshot. it's a little complicated but it's also fun. the opportunities to celebrate little things is generally an exciting punctuation mark to the month. I love giving gifts. especially to 夫. I'm all for it.

This reminded me of sheldon's rant on gifts

Me in Australia where no one gives or recieves gifts on Valentine's day

Honest Valentine's day has gotten so complicated in Japan it sounds like a video game pre-order.

I absolutely love this idea

I've never felt bad for paying less or more than someone during gift exchanges. It's nice to get a gift at all, so I tell people to never feel bad

This problem will be solved in the future when everyone is just dating vr girls

Number 1 cause of debt in Japan might be chocolate

Flowcharts for buying and where to gift chocolates. Damn lol

Sounds awsome to me, a spreadsheet so I can not fail gift, love it.

Meanwhile in Philippines Flower/Roses bouquet is king when comes to giving commonly for showing affections, while giving "Ferrero flowers" (Ferrero Rocher in a fake or origami flower) is a classic gift for either your favorite teacher or your close friend. Hopefully this won be part of the valentine spreadsheet.

What makes it odd is not only you have to give a gift for Valentine´s Day for the guy you like but it seems you also had to do it with any guy you know too. Isn´t the day about to be romantic with your partner or something? Why someone should include others to the equation?

This sounds like scheme to make people buy more chocolate :p

You know what, as a girl, I can see why this took off. It’s like a buzzfeed quiz that decides what candy to give, I’m so into that shit.

And here I am buying a last minute snicker or Hershey to my friends because I forgot it was Valentine’s Day

It's a month after ? They make white day seem like the day after valentines day.

3:43 I know that from Miss Kobayashi. yaaaaay.

Basically same valentine & white day culture for S.Korea (but usually don't make choco home but buy more expensive ones for significant other). Also there is a famous couple choco day called Pepero (Korean pocky choco) Day at 11(Nov).11 since they look like stick chocos in parallel.

When you've never gotten any valentine's gift/chocolate😭😭💔

I’ve seen so many shoujo and romance anime that to me this entire video is like I’m relearning the colors of the rainbow.

I didn't know tomochoko was a new thing. It definitely already was a thing when I was 10.

What would happen if you just gave someone a convenient store snickers?

Valentine's Day in Poland is basically the second Woman's Day (even though it's earlier in the year)

I’d never heard of White Day until I played Persona 5

I did not grow up with the idea of Valentine's day but since I saw it in anime I have been making chocolates for my friends and family every year. It's always a lot of work but also a lot of fun xD

The woman or man that gifts me a set of either fuchigashira or fuchikabutogane is an immediate SSR tier because they either share my taste in swords or knows me or loves me enough to care

I must conduct further research...

Lol, having a flow chart to figure out the appropriate gift is like peak Japanese.

So in yaoi the guy who gives chocolate to the other guy on Feb. 14, is the girl of the relationship? 🤣

I probably laughed way too hard, but the part where Connor says "or say syke and just don't date her anymore" had me laughing so hard hard, I was nearly in tears.

Here we just have discount in the supermarket. Nothing complicated.

I have never either given or received anything on Valentine's day, but it's still funny to spectate. I also don't care much about gifts.

Right, well, this explains why there are so many hikikomori and sōshoku-kei danshi

If Garnt is so worried about spending money on gifts for Christmas, he's doing Christmas wrong

*im waiting for the day they talk about toilet bound hanako* because for me its hella underrated ngl

The only time i've gotten stuff on valentine's is from my mom and now I can give her stuff. Only guy I ever dated didn't do holidays

What is with the culture of one-upping gifts? So, I'm American, and my best friend is Taiwanese, and last week I was supposed to take her to a Christmas themed place by where we go to college (We ended up cancelling because the rest of my outfit ended up going and getting drunk and we had a long day due to Brass Culmination) and once we made the plans to go, I was going to pay for everything because I invited her. Well she started going on a long speel of how she's going to have to one-up me with another gift, due to something about her culture, and I've been very confused since. Although she did try and explain why, but I'm kinda dumb and it went right over my head.

White day is even worse. As far as I know, the return gift for the girl has a different meaning whether it is chocolate, cookies or candy. Can't remember exactly which is which, but one means "I accept your feelings", the other is a polite friendzone sentence, and the final one means "sorry nope, now back off bitch". It's supposed to be common knowledge, but I bet a lot of people are unaware of it and this ends up creating the most deliciously stupid misunderstandings to ruin your life as a teen.

In America, Valentine's day is more of a couple's date night. If you're married or you're in a romantic relationship, you're kinda expected to do something intimate on Valentine's day together even if you don't go out on a date. Whether it be having a movie night together at home or having a romantic candlelight dinner (as cheesy as that sounds), the only ones who really celebrate Valentine's day are the people who're actually in a committed relationship. But plenty of people also celebrate Valentine's day with their families since familial love is just as, if not more, important.

So... when can we expect a school anime where the boy sends a chocolate vending machine with his picture on it to the girls school for 'White Day'?

This video gave me middle school Valentine's PTSD flashbacks.

It's like bdays you keep giving your bud cash back and forth until one of you passes leaving the other a few buck richer

i need spreadsheets for everything

So valentine's day is basically equivalent exchange with a 1 month delay

I've always liked Catalonia's valentine's day, guys give a rose and gals give a book.

I just wanna recieve chocolates or candy, man.

If Valentines Day is only for men and White Day is only for women, how would it work in Japan for gay couples?

You guys get chocolate? Last time I remember, Feb 14 was just a regular day except there's hearts and couples everywhere.

When are they gonna talk about the 'indirect kiss' thing in anime

21 years with no valentine gifts... maybe next year!.... ah who am I kidding

"Girls give chocolate to the guys?!" Lol

When you want to min max but there is nothing to min max so you make a whole system that you can min max... the Country

I read this in the Komi San manga

What was the anime where she put her bl00d into the chocolate Maybe it was a "adult anime" He then also turns into a vampire or something

Mei ling in the back like IU FEEL PERSOnally called out

Well, now I DO wanna know what kind of bread I am...

Well... at least I can draw (somewhat) my sweet husbando giving chocolates to me... 😂

Japan has very strict rules of gift giving but having gift rules for every social relationship possible is very common in almost the whole Asian continent,in my opinion. There is just less pressure and set normes but giving gifts to your neighbors is pretty common in South Asia for example and that even if you don't talk to them more than a passing inquiry about health and family once a week.

Whats the hate man? Different tiers of chocholate for different tiers of friends is pretty cool

Watch a new trend of chocolate where different flavors means different things.

Pokemon mystery dungeon be like, "Oh you got this character, but you can pick any of the others rendering you choice useless."

Korea has a special day for each 14th on the month. It's only really for couples though.

Japan is the only place I know that had a plan A to Z on Valentine's day

So if a guy is gay, does he just give a gift on White Day? In BL anime, I've seen it usually on Valentines's day, but women in Japan also have this rather degrading way of making it that whomever bottoms in the relationship is like a woman (like if marriage comes up, there's always talks of him being a "bride"). The visual novel Dramatical Murder had art work released for White Day, which I think would be more fitting. Though...that also eliminates the other guy getting him something back on a holiday a month later. So maybe Valentine's Day would be better. Oh god, now I'm creating spreadsheets!

Ahh, The Friendzoned Chocolates

I've watched that video Joey made now. I didn't know there was that type of chocolate girls give to girls they're friends with before. In addition to that video: There are rules/different gift types for white day in Japan (from what I know 😅): The gifts are supposed to be an answer to the gift the guy received from the girl, so there's a meaning behind the different kind of confectionary a girl gets back: -Marshmallow: I don't like you/ I hate you -Cookies (and chocolate): Let's be friends/ You're nice - (hard) Candy (Such as Bonbons, Lollipops, fancy chocolate): I have romantic feelings towards you/ I love you Normally coworkers give cookies/chocolate back

For someone who can’t eat chocolate it’s sounds like a nightmare.

Lol I'm gonna make rice Krispy treats and give them to people I like🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm a fan of the "max 20 quid" rule