White Day in Japan

Image from andrene_morris

March 14th is White Day in Japan. What is White Day you ask? White Day is exactly one month after Valentines’s Day, and is where boys have to return the favour of gifts received from girls on Valentine’s Day.

On Valentine’s Day in Japan girls present the boys with gifts usually chocolate. White Day is where the boys have to return the favour. Why call it White Day? It is pretty simple really. White is the colour of sugar the main ingredient in candy which is traditionally given on White Day.


Popular White Day gifts are traditionally white chocolate, cookies, jewellery, white lingerie, and marshmallows, but these days anything goes.

There is a word in Japanese “三倍返し” (sanbai gaeshi) which means triple the return, where the rule is a returned gift should be 2 to 3 times the cost of the Valentine’s gift. The boys have it tough on White Day in Japan.

White Day was first celebrated in Japan in 1978. It is also celebrated in South Korea and Taiwan.