I’ve read that it’s custom in Japan to buy and bring back souvenirs for all your coworkers and Bosses when you were on vacation and I have questions about this.
Why do they do that? It’s takes extra money out of your travel budget and you have much more to transport back. I can understand if you do that for coworkers you regard as friends but all of them? Why is it even their business were you go on vacation and they aren’t really entitled to it? I really want to know more about this custom.
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Not all Japanese do so. But if you decide to give souvenirs to your coworkers close to you, you should give all your coworkers too or keep it secret that you distinguish your closer coworkers from the rest.
I believe the tradition of bringing back omiyage began with those who took pilgrimages bringing back a souvenir (or evidence) that they went on the pilgrimage. And that kind of transformed into bringing back snacks or something whenever you make a trip.
If you don’t want to spend money or take up valuable luggage space, though, you could just keep all of your trips a secret, lol.
Yeah it is pretty common but I think most people will give you a pass if you just don’t, especially as a foreigner.
But something cheap/shared is really common, often food. I’d usually just pick something up at the airport. Like a box of some kind of Indian sweet, or maybe a bag of dried mango if I was coming from Thailand. American chocolate. That sort of thing. Then occasionally I would get a smaller amount of something a bit more special that was just for my close team.
In my office it was super common to just leave something in the break room then send an email around to everyone like “I left omiyage from [country] on the table, ご自由にどうぞ” sort of thing.
It doesn’t have to be expensive. Just a box of (individually wrapped) snacks or something.
Gift culture in Japan is a little different. Everyone in this thread has some good ideas – I think, in addition, it’s also intended to be a thank you for potentially causing your coworkers to take over some work in your absence. I live in Japan and noticed a lot of my coworkers take secret trips lmao. I only bring omiyage during New Year’s since that’s the big holiday. I thought the souvenier thing was crazy too but I love coming to work and finding snacks on my desk lol.
In addition to gifts at work, people also often brings gifts when they visit a friend’s/family member’s house, especially if they’re staying for dinner or overnight. This is also normal where I’m from but in Japan they bring a LOT.
Family especially give a lot of money to relatives getting married, and the couple is expected to return half of the money in gifts. It’s usually gift cards but I’m an artist so my husband and I made gifts for my in-laws in Japan. I’m from Canada and I was really shocked how much more the monetary wedding gifts were in Japan compared to Canada (also how inconvenient the return gift is lol).