What Day is the 23rd of May in Japan? - Kiss Day

Juju Kurihara

May 24, 20132 min read

23rd of May was "Kiss Day" in Japan. Kiss in Japan? Are you surprised? Yes, Japanese people also kiss. In Japanese it´s called Seppun (接吻), the literal meaning is touching the lips.

This Kiss Day started just after the WII when people are trying to recover from the loss. 1946, a film was released. It was a Japanese film director, Yasushi Sasaki (佐々木康)´s new film, "Hatachi no Seishun (はたちの青春/ 20 year-old youth)".

It blew Japanese people´s mind at that time. Why? Because the couple kissed in the film and it was the very first kiss scene in the Japanese film industry. It was the 23rd of May in 1946 and since then, this day became the Day of Kiss.

Oh, how was the kissing in this film? Remind you, it was just after the WII ended and Japan had just come out of militarism. Don´t expect too much.

It was like this, over the window. Oh, how romantic....

This news reminded me my childhood. I had a neighbour who had a 4 year-old boy. He lived with his mum and a grandma in a small apartment behind the house my family lived. He was two year younger than me and as I had another neighbour who was my age, I often preferred to play with her than this boy.

But we played. He had just got a new bicycle and it was his treasure. Whenever he had time, he would wipe it to clean. I imagine him in his 30th, shining his car every weekend....

Anyway, one day his mum baked biscuits and invited me to their flat. The mum and the boy slept in the living room/kitchen on a bunk bed. The boy and I were playing in the living room part while eating biscuits. Suddenly he asked his mum "Mum, can I kiss her?"

OK, I was 6, I was born in the county that kissing is not a common activity to see in public and yet, I knew what it was. My parents kissed me when I went to bed every night. I remember when I heard him I thought "What the F....?"

His mum was making more biscuits and said to him "Well, you need to ask her, not me". So he did.

My response was "Where?"

The boy "Wherever you like"

So I told him my head was OK and he kissed me on the forehead. He was happy. And I was happy because his mum gave me another biscuit. Oh what a sweet memory!

I have to admit that when I saw "Kiss Day", it was them (photo) who came up to my mind. But oh, well, a sweet childhood memory showed up at the end.

What´s your memory of kiss?

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