HYPER JAPAN 2012 Christmas

St. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and a vast number of Japanese men are dying for chocolate gifts from women since that’s the custom in Japan; women give chocolate to men on the day (find out why that happened here).  However, Japanese women today seem to enjoy exchanging chocolate gifts with their female friends rather than just giving them to men.

Now, Tokyo-based serial entrepreneur and web service producer, Kazuma Ieiri, has created a wonderful new web app called ‘Chocokure’, targeted at every Japanese man who is waiting for someone to give them chocolate on St. Valentine’s Day. ‘Kure’ means ‘give me’ and ‘choco’ is, as you can probably guess, ‘chocolate’.

This social Valentine platform was released on Twitter on February 3 this year, and the app will be available in Japan for a set period until February 14. The app allows you to easily ask the girl you fancy for chocolate gifts by entering her Twitter account name into the ‘Chocokure’ web page. She can then choose from two buttons: “Give a present”, or “Sorry but no”.

If the girls accept the man’s request, she will then pay 500 yen (around 4 pounds) by card, for a chocolate package available through the website, and the chocolates are delivered to the man on February 14th.  Although only 2,000 packages were going to be available through ‘Chocokure’, the service has proved so popular that it’s already received over 3,000 orders.

‘Chocokure’ is an innovative app that’s making social networking Japan more lively and entertaining than ever before for the upcoming St. Valentine’s Day!

Win yourself some Valentine's Choccies with HYPER JAPAN & Tofu Cute

We've teamed up with super-kawaii online store Tofu Cute (you can also catch them at the event!) to run a week-long competition to win a packed of Valentine's chocolates every day! Today's delicious prize is the delicious set to the right. And it's so simple to win! All you need to do is Like the post linking to this article on our Facebook, or tweet this article, or write us a comment - and we'll pick someone at the end of each day. And if you  don't win today, you can try again tomorrow. Click here to check out Tofu Cute's extensive range of fun and fascinating Japanese sweets and snacks, along with Japanese kawaii-style accessories, stationery and gifts.

Prizes for Sunday 12th February

Squishy Scented Doughnut Phone Charm
Stress relieving squishy realistic looking chocolate doughnut, with a sweet scent
Pepero Nude Chocolate Biscuit Sticks
Crunchy biscuit sticks with a milk chocolate filling – like inside-out Pocky!
Koala’s March Chocolate Biscuits
New product – will be available online soon
Crunchy biscuits with a milk chocolate filling, printed with kawaii koala bears!

Text: Honami Matsuura
Images: Yuna Kimura