Comments on: Japanese Wedding Gifts

By: steven

steven — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:01:21 +0000

when I buy these high price gifts such as Pocket watches,how can i afford it?

By: Smithy

Smithy — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:54:49 +0000

Thanks for this. I always found giving money at Japanese weddings difficult but between your info and the other info here I figured out it out
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/japanese-wedding-and-funeral-money/

By: smallq

smallq — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:34:43 +0000

Thanks for the explanation in the comments! (and the original post as well)

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:38:14 +0000

Thanks, that explains it!

By: harvey

harvey — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 06:14:45 +0000

Good question!

There is one Japanese wedding tradition that explains it.

When attending a Japanese wedding party (hirouen) the guests are expected to give a cash gift. The cash gift is usually given in 10,000 yen bills (about 100USD). It is considered bad luck to give number of bills that can be divided by 2. So people do not give 20,000 yen usually. Just giving 10,000 yen is kinda cheap.

So I would say on average people give 30,000 yen to the bride and groom when attending these parties.

Of course, at Japanese weddings company managers and co-workers are also invited. These types tend to give a little more.

I have heard that some weddings can end up breaking even… though this is tricky to work out.

Fun fact, Nagoya is famous for having the most elaborate and expensive weddings in Japan.