Tokyo, 11 February, /AJMEDIA/
Only 12.5 percent of people in Japan plan to give chocolates to colleagues for Valentine’s Day, as the culture of obligatory gift-giving wanes due to the prevalence of working from home, a recent survey found.
The figure is the lowest it has ever been, according to a study by Nippon Life Insurance Co ahead of Valentine’s Day on Friday. More than 70 percent said they believed it unnecessary or somewhat unnecessary to dole out workplace chocolate gifts.
The online survey received responses from 11,716 people, with more than half of respondents in their 50s and 60s. It was conducted between Jan 4 and 15.
In Japan, women traditionally give a box of chocolates to the men in their lives on Valentine’s Day, as well as bringing “obligatory” chocolates to colleagues and others.
“Personal relationships in the workplace have weakened as teleworking has become common and people change jobs,” said Naoko Kuga, a researcher from the NLI Research Institute.
A total of 35.3 percent of respondents said they planned on giving someone a present, down 2.3 percentage points from the previous year, of which spouses or partners made up the majority of intended recipients at 64.3 percent.
Meanwhile, people were planning on spending an average of 4,761 yen on chocolates for themselves, up 496 yen from a year earlier, despite the rising cost of raw materials, as they decided to splash out on themselves instead of buying for colleagues, according to the study.
