How confectionery makers started to promote Valentine’s Day to boost their business?
How and when confectionery makers first started to make the most of Valentine’s Day in order to boost their sales is not clear. There are many as five different theories, ranging from a theory that a Kobe confectionery maker started in 1936 to a theory that was started in Sony Plaza in 1968, but none is ascertained. What is ascertained is that department stores exerted much effort to make Valentine’s Day pervasive in Japan with chocolate promotion but in vain, and therefore many people viewed that Valentine’s Day would not become popular in Japan around 1968. However, from 1970s, chocolate sales for Valentine’s Day increased drastically. This was because teenagers started to give chocolates on Valentine’s Day at first, and this manner spread to adults in 1990s. Thus, although it is often said that popularity of giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day in Japan attributes to hidden strategy of chocolate makers, it also attributes to the fact that some factors of Valentine’s Day were well ac
