Girlfriends Have Surprise For Valentines In Japan, Women Do Giving, And They’re Not Playing Coy

In Japan, the custom of courting one’s significant other on Valentine’s Day has long fallen on the shoulders and pocketbooks of women.

Men have sat back and received everything from the traditional chocolates and flowers to “love at first sight” rice and electric underwear.

This year, some Japanese women will go a step further: presenting their boyfriends with a photograph of themselves standing alone in a wedding dress - a blunt suggestion that a proposal is in order.

In Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, the Osaka Toyo Hotel is providing women with a photographer and a choice of many different wedding gowns.

In the end, they walk off with a framed photo and a box of chocolates, all for $40. The hotel says about 1,000 women have participated so far in the “Pressure Choco” promotion.

“I just want my boyfriend to know how sincere my feelings are. I also want to give him a surprise,” said 20-year-old Yumi Kaji.

Japan’s version of Valentine’s Day began in the 1950s, when chocolate makers imported the idea from the West to boost sales. Like many other Western institutions here, Japan soon modified it: only women do the giving.

Men are supposed to reciprocate one month later on “White Day,” the brainchild of confectioners eager to harness the Japanese penchant for keeping a careful account of one’s gift-giving obligations.

This year, that means that many of the women who will give their boyfriends “Pressure Choco” photos on Valentine’s Day will be waiting for a wedding proposal on White Day.

But Akiko Imai, editor of Graceful Wedding bridal magazine, believes such gifts reflect a change in the role women play in courtship.

“These days, some women prefer to choose a partner rather than to be chosen,” Imai said.