51.8% of women plan to give some kind of gift on Valentine’s Day, down from previous year
When 500 women were asked if they plan to give gifts such as chocolate on Valentine’s Day this year, 51.8% responded yes, a decrease of 8.8 percentage points compared with the same survey conducted in 2016 (https://research.rakuten.co.jp/report/20160204/). Looking at the results by age group, 75.0% of those in their 20s answered yes, an increase of 8 percentage points over the previous year. On the other hand, all other age groups showed a decreasing trend in the number of respondents who answered yes compared to the previous year.
When respondents who answered that they would be giving gifts for Valentine’s Day this year were asked to who they will give the gifts to, most of the respondents replied “my partner (husband or boyfriend)” (71.8%), followed by “a family member” (48.3%) and “someone I am obligated to give a gift to (colleagues or male friends)” (29.0%). The percentage of people who answered “someone I have feelings for” was the lowest at 5.4%, a similar result to the previous year (4.1%).
Compared to last year, there was an increase in the number of people who said they would treat themselves to gifts or give gifts to female friends. The number of women saying that they would give gifts to female friends more than doubled compared to last year’s results (13.9% to 6.2% respectively).
More than 40% of women in their 20s said that they would make chocolates
When asked if they would make chocolates for Valentine’s Day this year, over half of all women said no (58.3%), with 23.6% saying yes.
The results varied by age group, with a strong trend of women in their 20s and 30s choosing to make chocolates (20s: 45.6%; 30s: 35.9%), in comparison to over half of women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who responded that they would not make chocolates (40s: 79.2%; 50s: 72.9%; 60s: 89.2%).
Approximately half of all men had “no expectations” for Valentine’s Day
When the 500 male respondents were asked whether or not they expected to receive gifts on Valentine’s Day this year, 45.4% said that they did not, compared to 37.6% who answered that they did expect to receive gifts, a difference of 7.8 percentage points.
Men who want chocolates do so because they like sweet things. Men who DO NOT want chocolates do not want them because “giving something in return is a hassle.”
When those who responded that they wanted to receive chocolate were asked the reason behind this, the most common answer was “because I like sweet things (36.7%),” followed by “because I can understand the feelings of the person who gave the chocolate (22.5%),” and “because it is an opportunity to interact with women (16.1%).” By age group, the percentage of men in their 20s who responded “because it is an opportunity to interact with women” was higher than all other groups.
On the other hand, when those stating that they did not want chocolate were asked why, the most common answer among men of all age groups was “because it is a hassle to give something in return (44.2%),” followed by “because it costs money to give something in return (16.6%),” and “because I dislike the entire event (12.9%).” There was little variation in the responses by age group.