Today was Valentine’s Day in Japan, and despite fewer than one percent of Japanese being Christian, it is a holiday met with tremendous fanfare. Chocolatiers have a field day, producing extremely expensive confections. One boutique in Tokyo promised the nation’s most expensive chocolates, costing about $4 for a single piece about the size of a Hershey’s Kiss. Chocolate has been advertised in the papers for a couple of weeks now in glossy advertising sections, and a country already consumed with a passion for confections both indigenous and Western made sweets omnipresent: police in Kyoto gave out candy to motorists today, in moving traffic. That’s the kind of candy devotion one just doesn’t see even in the obese West. Though it is safe to say, that with most of the candy in question being high-ticket designer swag, there won’t be much in the way of mark-downs come the 15th.

So who, aside from the local law enforcement agents, is buying all of this chocolate one might ask? If basing your reasoning on the Western model of men buying candy for their loved ones, or schoolchildren buying sweets along with inane cards to exchange with their classmates, you would be wrong. Though since the 60s traditional gender roles have gradually eroded as more and more women have entered the workplace, a strange homage to the seemingly Victorian mores of old remains: on Valentine’s Day the women buy the chocolate. For all of the men in their life. That means close male friends, boyfriends, husbands, and–here’s the kicker–coworkers, particularly bosses. Female office workers, here known as OLs (Office Ladies) are expected to buy what is known as 義理チョコ (giri choko), quite literally “obligation chocolate.” Perhaps trying to curry favor with a boss, female coworkers will spend quite a lot of money on chocolate gift sets such that when paired with their other candy giving duties can prove quite a financial hardship on Valentine’s Day each year. My host father came home with several such gift boxes this evening, so though I’ve heard the practice is somewhat on the decline, especially the purchase of truly exorbitant gifts, it appears to be alive and well.

That said, perhaps women get the last laugh. A month from now, on March 14 is White Day, a holiday–so the conspiracy goes–created by confectioners trying to sell marshmallows. Whatever the case, the men who received gifts from their significant others a month earlier are expected to do what is known as a “triple return” whereby they purchase a gift, preferably something white, three times the value of the gift they received. Considering the aforementioned price of chocolate here, that can get pricey quickly. White chocolate is the go to, but apparently jewelry and the like are also on the table. However for the long-suffering OLs there is no respite–coworkers are exempt.

If it seems to you none of this sounds particularly romantic and seems to serve primarily a capitalist end, I couldn’t disagree. One might ask, why don’t the Japanese go out on dates to fancy restaurants or catch romantic movies or the like? The answer is that Valentine’s Day is pretty much all about candy, with hearts and the word “love” reserved for fancy packaging. However in a nation where 98% of the population says they are Buddhist and/or Shinto, there is one holiday where the young folks are expected to go out for a traditionally romantic evening.

That day is Christmas.