Gift giving is a vital part of Japanese culture. It’s the lubricant that keeps relationships in good standing and society functioning harmoniously. While many Japanese people do give gifts out of goodness of their hearts, there are 2 times during the year when gift giving is an obligation. At the end of the year, called Oseibo お歳暮 and during the summer in which case it’s called Ochugen お中元. Generally, these gifts are given to people who you are obligated to rather than family or friends. People such as your landlord, your clients, someone to whom you owe lots of money, etc. The types of gifts are limited to expensive meat or fruits, dry food or kitchen items in bulk or basically anything that can be eaten or serves a practical purpose in any household. You don’t give decorative items or souvenirs. The reason is that if you get an ochugen that you don’t like or won’t use you can give it to someone else. This is the art of circulating gifts that most Japanese housewives are very good at. Some seasoned gift givers do not even buy gifts, they just give out the gifts they’ve received carefully making sure that they don’t give the same gift to the person they got it from. For example, if they received a gift from person A, they would give that gift to person B, and give the gift from B to C, C to D, D to A and so on.

Japanese department stores and supermarkets have made gift giving very easy. During the peak seasons they have lots of displays like the ones in these photos. You choose the item you want and the department store will have it delivered to any address in Japan. In this store, the boxes only have a photo of the contents but in the fancy department stores in Ginza they will have samples of the real stuff. The items are often fresh foods like crab from Hokkaido or beef from Kobe which get sent from those locations. You can also order things online through the department stores websites but it’s not as much fun as going to the shops and checking out the gifts in person.

Which would you be happier receiving, a box of really expensive steaks or a case of vegetable oil? Why the steaks of course! Who the hell wants a huge box of vegetable oil?

If you’re too lazy to pick something out you can just get one of these gift cheque books. They range in price from ¥3000 to over ¥100,000! You give one of the books to someone and they can pick some item from the book. Sometimes these books are given out at weddings (to the people who attend not as gifts for the marrying couple). Inside the ¥105,630 book, there were gift certificates to some pretty expensive restaurants, presidential suites at some luxury hotels and other things that I would generally not blow a thousand bucks on. Personally, I would rather just have the cash.

Have you gotten any ochugen yet?