Image ©NiMiProjects
It's been a while since we delved into Valentine's Day in Japan, but this year we've seen a few new Japanese chocolates and candies we just had to share for a little sweet inspiration. Visit our Valentines' Day Collection, too, for long-lasting non-chocolate gift ideas.
In Japan, celebrating Valentine’s Day is a relatively new concept — one that only dates back to the late 1930s, when the popular Kobe chocolatier Mozoroff Ltd. launched its first Valentine’s campaign. By the 1950s, major department stores had followed suit and a curious custom began to evolve.
On February 14, Japanese women — yes only the women — would gift chocolates to not just the loves of their lives, but to any man of significance within their orbit. These “courtesy gifts” would be handed out to family, friends, work colleagues and even bosses. How this imbalance came about is unclear. Story has it, however, that an old advertising campaign featuring a young woman giving a man Valentine’s sweets may have been misconstrued to grow into the oddly unfair tradition.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that the National Confectionery Industry Association finally decided to try and even out the chocolate playing field. In 1978, it established White Day, a March 14th celebration for women to receive a little return on their Valentine’s investment. We’d like to think this was in the spirit of a second wave of feminism in Japan, but it was most likely a marketing campaign to sell even more confectionery. Whatever the reason, on March 14, the men who received chocolates on Valentine’s Day were expected to bring gifts of white sweets or cookies to the women — and rightly so, we say!
Since then, Japan has, thankfully, progressed. For younger generations, Valentine’s Day is for everyone, and the nation now produces some of the most stylish and cutest chocolates we’ve ever seen. For those still following the old rules, there’s always plenty of small gift sets as well as limited editions that remind us how food design can make all the difference to a treat.
Here are our favourite "only-in-Japan" chocolate designs released for Valentine's Day 2026.
Botanical Cookie Tin: Image courtesy of Treee's Kyoto / Daimaru
MATCHA PERFECTION BY TREEE’S KYOTO
Established by patissier and sommelier Shinsuke Kimura, Treee’s Kyoto combines premium grade, organic Uji matcha with the artistry of cookies and bon bons. Its Botanical Cookie Tin and Koichi Truffle Chocolate are among the more unusual Valentine’s items on offer at Daimaru Tokyo Store. We think Treee’s Kyoto's earthy green sweets are also among the most visually striking. The patisserie itself also offers other matcha-infused wonders, including a bar of camouflage patterned chocolate and a matcha chocolate mousse bonsai cake that oozes with matcha sauce and is surrounded by a crispy, black cocoa crumble.
The Botanical Cookie Tin is filled with little leaf and flower biscuits made with 100% rice flour and flavoured with several kinds of single-origin tea. It also includes a handful of matcha-dusted chocolate covered almonds, pecans and walnuts.
Morinoki Aka: Image courtesy of Snows
SNOWS WINTRY CONFECTIONS
A winter treat release only, Snows’ seasonal selection of delectable treats are made in Hokkaido, home to some of the best dairy products of Japan. Each year, it releases new winter-themed and beautifully designed chocolates that delight the eyes and palate. This year, Snow’s new confections include Gorori Snowball, a fresh truffle ball, made with a rich and smooth, fresh cream centre, rolled in sweet milk chocolate and crunchy almond pieces. Our favourite, though is the Morinoki Aka — twigs of crispy feuilletine pieces, chopped almonds and tangy, freeze-dried Hokkaido strawberry nuggets enveloped in pink chocolate.
If you are in Japan, there are only a few places outside of Hokkaido that Snows is available — Daimaru Tokyo, Umeda and Nagoya Takashimaya — and it’s for a limited time (until Feb. 14). But if you happen to be in Hokkaido or those cities for a Valentine’s treat, we think it’ll be worth it. Daimaru is holding various chocolate fairs in its stores across Japan, where you’ll discover more of Snows’ lineup as well a host of other brands.
Tsuki no Koubutsu Wokashi: Image courtesy of Melting Pot Harapeco Lab
HARAPECO LAB MELTING POT GEMS
Harapeco Lab is a collective of food creators based in Fukuoka. We particularly love that they are all women. These talented culinary experts are best known for healthy local catering and Kobutsu Okashi, their signature sugar and agar candies. Translucent soft jelly centred sweets, these crystal-like gems are individually hand cut, brightly coloured and delicately flavoured with fruit juices and liqueurs.
For Valentine's, Harapeco Lab hope to take their fans to the moon and back. Their new Tsuki no Koubutsu Wokashi, or moon fruit sweets, are inspired by the fairytale idea of travelling to the moon to collect otherworldly lunar gems and rocks. Each box flips open to reveal an assortment of colourful Kobutsu faceted agar crystals on a bed of chocolate pebbles and rocks. There are 11 crystals or gems, all different colours and shapes and in five different flavours.
Minimal Haiti: Image courtesy of Minimal
MINIMAL SIMPLICITY
As its name suggests, Minimal makes chocolate that's perfect for admirers of minimalist design. The thought and work behind each bar, however, is far from minimal.
Based in Tokyo, Minimal’s bean-to-bar artisans, a team of chocolatiers and pastry chefs, often travel to cacao-producing regions to source the finest beans. They extensively research cacao production, collaborate with farmers to develop flavour profiles, and offer technical support and ethical business transactions. The name actually comes from minimising ingredients to create a pure kind of chocolate, but we also have to admire the attractive and smart minimalist design. Each bar of chocolate is lightly sprinkled with cocoa nibs and sectioned into various sizes, allowing you to snap of a tiny piece to savour or a decent chunk to indulge.
Minimal’s February release is Haiti, a white chocolate bar, with a touch of butterscotch. Simplicity is key, where the lingering hint of butterscotch comes from rich natural Haitian cocoa butter combined with powdered milk and sugar.
Coffrelon: Image courtesy of Cagi Reves
CAGI REVES HOLDS THE KEYS
Among Marui Tokyo department stores recommendations of 37 chocolate and sweet brands for Valentine’s Day is Cagi Reves, an Osaka based purveyor of confectionery and patisserie with a wide range of delectable treats. Cagi means “key” in English and Reves is the French word for “dreams.” Their signature chocolate key collection is a delightful way to show someone that they have the keys to the heart.
The Coffrelon box contains 15 chocolate keys and four heart locks, and offers a range of cacao content from a sweet milk 33% to a rich, dark 87.5%. Other collections include colourful, glossy chocolate locks filled with champagne jelly, fruit and caramel ganaches, and simple bars featuring a central keyhole.
Buddy Chocolate: Image courtesy of Kobe Chocolate
KOBE CHOCOLATE FOR BUDDIES
Buddy Chocolate, Kobe Chocolate’s most popular collection, is all about the joy of sharing with friends. There’s something fun about Buddy Chocolate’s tins of generous shards of thick, chunky chocolate. Not everything needs to be tidy and not everything broken is defective.
We can see why Buddy Chocolate also made the cut for Marui Department store’s list of recommendations. Kobe Chocolate’s wide range of chocolate blends and flavours add to a very playful design. You'll find curls of pretzels, crumbs of biscuits, dipping dots of caramel, clusters of nuts, sprinkles of freeze dried fruits and drizzles of white or matcha-infused chocolate. Imagine the fun of smashing large colourful slabs of Buddy Chocolate into the indulgently large fragments that are packed into these tins.
NB. The confectioneries in this post are currently only available in Japan.