7/18/2005

Japan’s art of giving gifts
Japan is one culture where giving and receiving presents is crucial and now is the summer season of “Ochugen,” or gift giving.
Some of these corporate gifts do not come cheap. At the Mitsukoshi Department Store, presents such as a $300 bottle of sake, or Japanese rice wine, is just one of the many given to clients. The store believes it is an important cultural practice…The typical range for approved gifts in Japan is around $100….
If you are given a gift that you consider inappropriate according to company directives — say about the amount the gift is worth — you should handle the situation very carefully.

The picture above is 3Yen’s summer gift as featured in the ochugen-targeted advertisement for Kikoman(tm) soy sauce (circa 1965).
Dasai da na? ださい だな? Tacky, ain’t it?
Foisting off tacky ochugen bribes you have received onto the people on your gift list is one of the joys of Japanese life. These midsummer gifts, aka ochugenお中元, are a fact of life here and these bribes can be legally deducted as business expenses. Even American companies with strict no-gifts policies like the GAP Inc. have an “Exception for Japanese Communities” that allows Japanese bribe-gifts up to 10,000yen.