The Guardian said:For many, pressure to avoid causing offence by spending thousands of yen on treats for coworkers is becoming intolerable
Japanese women are pushing back against a tradition the dictates they must give chocolates to male colleagues on Valentine's Day, with growing anger at the practice of "forced giving".
Until recently, women in the workplace were expected to buy chocolates for their male workmates as part of a tradition called giri choco – literally, obligation chocolates.
For a growing number of people, the pressure to avoid causing offence by spending thousands of yen on chocolates for coworkers is becoming intolerable. Some companies are now banning the practice, which is seen by many workers as a form of abuse of power and harassment.
A survey found that than 60% of women will instead buy chocolates as a personal treat on 14 February. More than 56% said they would give chocolates to family members, while 36% would make the same gesture towards partners or the objects of a crush.
Keeping on the right side of colleagues, however, was furthest from their thoughts, with just 35% saying they planned to hand out chocolate treats to men at their workplace, according to the poll by a Tokyo department store.
"Before the ban, we had to worry about things like how much is appropriate to spend on each chocolate and where we draw the line in who we give the chocolates to, so it's good that we no longer have this culture of forced giving," one of the surveyed office workers said, according to the Japan Today website.
Source
Good riddance!?
