
Japanese women push back against Valentine's tradition of 'obligation chocolate' - pseudolus
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/japanese-women-push-back-against-valentines-tradition-of-obligation-chocolate
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hatmatrix
> Men are supposed to reciprocate on 14 March on White Day – an event dreamed
> up by chocolate makers in the early 80s to boost sales.

Japan seems to have been especially susceptible to the power of suggestion by
commercial entities. It was also the case with diamonds [1]

> Until 1959 the importation of diamonds had not even been permitted by the
> postwar Japanese government. When the [marketing] campaign began in 1968,
> less than 5 percent of Japanese women getting married received a diamond
> engagement ring. By 1972 the proportion had risen to 27 percent. By 1978,
> half of all Japanese women who were married wore a diamond on their ring
> finger. And, by 1981, some 6o percent of Japanese brides wore diamonds.

[1]
[https://edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/prologue.htm](https://edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/prologue.htm)

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planktonite
This is the key quote. Why is this article trying to make it seem like women
are getting the short end of the stick? As far as I can tell men and women buy
the same amount of chocolates. Also, they say that women are spending
thousands of yen ... that’s like 20 dollars. This article is filled with click
bait deception and frankly it’s garbage.

If you ever get married, buy a real ring from Tiffany’s, have the stone
removed, sell it, and have it re-set with zirconium.

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thaumasiotes
You can't resell a diamond for anything close to the price you pay for it.
Just buy a ring with no stone, and then have it set with the stone of your
choice.

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crgwbr
This is a much better choice. Before proposing to my wife, I used Etsy to have
a ring custom made out of platinum and set with an 8mm moissanite. It’s
beautiful and was a tiny fraction the price of what a similar looking diamond
would have cost.

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DoreenMichele
With 7 billion people on the planet, there's bound to be some cultural growing
pains as we sort out which traditions make sense on a large scale and which
don't. Happy to hear this one is falling out of favor. It sounds like a not
great practice.

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ykevinator
We cannot protest everything. This is exhausting.

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vlunkr
Unless you happen to be a Japanese woman who works somewhere that honors this
tradition I don’t see how this can exhaust you.

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peterwwillis
I think he's saying that having to face a reality he would rather ignore via
no protest is exhausting.

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danbolt
I’m not really a fan of people feeling compelled to spend money for romantic
gestures in general, so I’m pretty okay with this.

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AstralStorm
Previously, self proclaimed ugly single guys protested it too.

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LyndsySimon
I’d like to point out that “thousands of yen” is “tens of dollars”.

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AstralStorm
Each. For every giri (obligation) chocolate. You would need a plenty of those.
And if it is something more serious like friendship or fondness, yet more.

