Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Japanese Gifting

Like weddings in any other culture, weddings in Japan put a nice dent in the wallet. But Japanese weddings also put a nice dent in an attendees wallet too – through the customary practice of “money envelopes”.

It’s customary as a guest at Japanese weddings to give a special envelope of freshly minted bills. So customary is this practice, every convenience store sells the special envelopes. Here’s one I picked up at the Seven-Eleven around the corner:

Like a McDonald’s kids meal plastic puzzle, there a couple pieces that must be combined. Here are the pieces:

The bills you give must be freshly minted, 10,000 yen bills in odd amounts. An even number of bills is a poor omen, as the amount can be split evenly between the newlyweds. An inner envelope holds the cash.

There are two “greeting slips” depending on the occasion, one for general congratulations:

and one specifically for wedding congratulations:

For my occasion, I picked the wedding one:

The inner envelope with the cash gets put inside the outer envelope …

On the back where the outer envelope is closed, the layering of the flaps makes a difference:

The top half folds under the bottom half if the gift is for a glorious occasion (wedding, graduation, etc.); the bottom half folds under the top half if it’s a condolence gift (funeral, etc.). Don’t want to mistake this one!