夫：会社でこんなにチョコレートもらったよ。パパもてるだろう？
娘：どうせ義理チョコでしょ。
Giri-choko
(Barentain-dee ni)
Otto: Kaisha de konna ni chokoreto moratta yo. Papa moteru daroo?
Musume: Doose giri-choko desho.
(On St. Valentine's Day)
My husband: Look at all the chocolate I got at the office. I really have a way with the girls, wouldn't you say?
Ourdaughter: But they're all Just "giri-choko, right?
* * *
Today is Saint Valentine's Day. Giri-choko refers to chocolate given as a gift by girls to their male classmates or by working women to their male colleagues or seniors out of a sense of loyalty, duty or respect.
Giri is a deep-rooted concept in Japanese ethics dating from the Edo period. It refers to that give-and-take principle in social interaction which seems to drive Japanese to feel obligated to those,who have been thoughtful or helpful in some way. People who are always good about giving mid-summer and year-end gifts are called giri-gatai hito (people meticulous about their obligations). Considering the way many people will say something like, "Ano hito ni wa giri ga aru kara kotoware nai (I'm obligated to that person andso I can't say no)," whengoing out toa party at a friend's house on a Sunday, I don't think it's too much to say that giri is the glue that holds Japanese relation- ships together.
A husband's father is his wife's father-in-law (giri no chichi), his mother her mother-in-law (giri no haha). Perhaps these expressions are used because, though there is no actual blood relationship between them, people are still expected to interact with their in-laws as if they were their own parents.
Saint Valentine's Day is named for two early Christian martyrs whose common feast day is Feb. 14. In Japan the holiday is celebrated minus any religious overtones and primarily seems to be a day when the chocolate companies get to make a lot of money. Few Japanese probably know anything about the Roman priest Valentinianus and how he suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus.
Perhaps it is because young birds begin to mate at this time that this day has become a day for people to confess their love for one another. In any case, in Japan it's a day for women to give chocolate to those men (classmates, colleagues, teachers or seniors)
they feel indebted to (giri no aru dansei ni giri-choko wo ageru hi).
It's not just a custom reserved for junior and senior high schoolers; the sight of elementary schoolgirls buying chocolate, several hundred yen held tightly in their fist, is sure to make anyone smile. I think the chocolate they buy will be given away with a lot more love than a woman office worker's 20 boxes of giri-choko (kaisha no OL ga kaikomu 20 ko no giri-choko yori).
My husband always looks so happy after recieving his yearly share of giri-choko (giri-choko wo takusan moratte, ureshiso). I just hope he realizes 1217 chocolate is not given out of a sense of duty or obligation!