“Today’s teenagers and people in their 20s tend not to be bound by gender stereotypes or ‘romantic supremacy’, so Valentine’s Day is no longer just a day for women to confess their feelings to men,” Hikari Asahina, the president of seamint, a market research form focusing on gen Z, told the magazine.
Another intriguing phenomenon has also emerged this year, with an increasing number of teenage boys viewing Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to reciprocate rather than wait until White Day on 14 March, when men are traditionally expected to return the favour.
“This is just a theory, but given the soaring prices of food and daily necessities … we believe there is greater demand for supermarkets, where the prices of Valentine’s Day products tend to be lower compared to department stores,” a Nippon Information spokesperson told the Mainichi.
Women are traditionally expected to buy chocolates for male colleagues on Valentine’s Day but teenage boys are shunning the one-sided custom.
In a poll of women by the market research firm Nippon Information, 31% of respondents said they would buy chocolate from a supermarket, followed by department stores on 29%, while 21% said they would make their own.
