Honoring Mothers: How Japan Adopted and Adapted Mother's Day

Mother's Day is observed worldwide as a day to recognize and thank mothers and mother figures. It began in the early twentieth century in the United States and has since expanded worldwide, taking on distinctive forms and rituals in different countries. Japan and America celebrate the holiday on the same day now, but this was not always the case.

In 1931, the recently-formed Greater Japan Women's Association declared March 6 to be Mother's Day. This was to match the birthday of Empress Kojun, wife of the Showa Emperor (Hirohito) and grandmother of the current Emperor. However this date did not prove to be popular, and quickly fell into disuse.

On May 8 and 9, 1939, the first Morinaga Mother's Day Convention, sponsored by the Morinaga confectionery company, was held at Toshimaen amusement park (present-day site of the Making of Harry Potter theme park). This event invited 200,000 mothers to participate in a celebration of motherhood. At the same time, a nationwide campaign was launched, encouraging kindergartens and elementary schools to have their students create drawings and write essays centered around the theme "My Mother." This initiative was met with enthusiastic participation, with over 11,000 drawings submitted from 2,500 accredited kindergartens and more than 10,000 essays from elementary schools. In response to this overwhelming engagement, Morinaga Mother's Day Conventions were organized in major cities across the country. At these events, many mothers were honored as special guests and received heartfelt thanks with messages such as "Thank you, Mom." The Morinaga Society to Honor Mothers expanded these celebrations yearly until the campaign was abruptly halted in 1941 due to the onset of the Pacific War.

After the war, Mother's Day celebrations were restarted in 1949, on the Second Sunday in May, in alignment with the United States. On Mother's Day in Japan, it is customary to give mothers red carnations if they are living and to offer white carnations to mothers who are deceased, a practice that began during the Meiji Era. It is said that Anna Jarvis, the American woman who championed the creation of Mother's Day, displayed an altar to her late mother decorated with white carnations, her mother's favorite flower. In Japan, out of concern for the feelings of children who had lost their mothers, the custom of giving white carnations has waned, but red carnations are still common.

According to Statista, more than half of survey respondents in Japan neither gifted nor received anything for Mother's Day. As the population ages and decreases, mothers increase in importance. Mother's Day in Japan has grown into an earnest display of appreciation for moms, combining traditional reverence with modern celebrations. Mother's Day acts as a link between generations, a day of celebration and contemplation on mothers' enormous contribution to forming society. This combination of historical tradition and modern adaption emphasizes the universal and everlasting character of maternal love, making Mother's Day a very meaningful celebration in Japan and across the world.