Corporate Gifts in Tokyo

Corporate gifts in Tokyo: from a Marunouchi desk to a client's hotel room

Marunouchi, beside Tokyo Station, holds the offices of large companies alongside high-end hotels, so corporate gifts in Tokyo go either to a company floor or to a client's hotel room. Settling that question first, counter downstairs or room upstairs, decides which format suits the order before any flower does.

Stem counts and the white chrysanthemum carry meanings worth checking before an order goes out. February also brings giri-choco, the small gift colleagues give managers and workmates on Valentine's Day.

Corporate gift delivery in Tokyo to a Marunouchi or Shinjuku desk

Shinjuku and Shibuya mix company floors with shopping and entertainment, so an order there is as likely to reach a desk as a counter downstairs. Either way, a corporate gift in Tokyo usually lands on a reception counter or a colleague's desk rather than in a vase at home.

For the counter, a box travels without a vase and reads well on arrival; 25 Mixed Roses in a Box suits that purpose. What the courier needs is the company name and the floor. Where the building uses access control, the gift goes through reception, and the sender is told who signed for it. The florist photographs the finished bouquet before the courier sets off, so the sender sees it before the recipient does.

Companies ordering for the office can ask for an invoice billed to the business, pay by bank transfer and request documents afterwards; a regular order can run on a standing contract instead of a one-off payment each time. The centre is free to deliver to, while other wards carry a flat zone charge, with the full terms on the delivery page.

A client staying in Roppongi: roses in a box, not a vase

Roppongi mixes hotels with residential towers, and a visiting client is as likely to be staying in one as working from the other. A gift sent there needs to survive a stretch of time with nobody around to put it in water.

For a hotel delivery, give the surname the guest checked in under and the room number if it is known; the florist either takes the gift up or leaves it at reception, depending on what the hotel allows. A gift that skips the vase problem works best here: flower baskets arrive already standing in soaked foam, and a hamper of fruit does the same job for a client who would rather not deal with flowers at all. For a new contract, Bouquet of Luck suits the occasion without needing any further description.

Airport pickups for a visiting client run by request: a courier waits at the arrivals exit at Haneda or Narita with a name board, and the route and price are agreed before payment.

Sobetsukai season: the farewell bouquet and the team's thanks

A colleague retiring, transferring or leaving the company is sent off at a sobetsukai, an evening gathering where someone presents a bouquet along with a shikishi, a card carrying short messages from everyone on the team. The season peaks in late March, when the fiscal year closes and transfers take effect.

The person leaving usually receives one bouquet to hold, something close to 15 Peony Lavender Roses. For the rest of the team, matching small bouquets work better than one large arrangement; lavender spray roses, part of the roses in this section, suit that role without needing a named product. Several bouquets heading to different addresses can travel together in one basket, with delivery charged separately for each stop.

Business openings and promotions traditionally bring a potted kochoran orchid with a name plate attached, a custom worth knowing even though this section carries no orchids.

Fruit or flowers when a company limits what staff accept

Ochugen, from late June to mid-July, and oseibo, through the first three weeks of December, are thank-you seasons marked with food rather than flowers. Some companies forbid gifts between colleagues and managers outright, and a gift to a civil servant can read as something closer to a bribe, so it is worth asking about the recipient's own rules before placing an order.

For a shared table, food formats take over from bouquets: a fruit basket, a cheese basket or a box of macarons all suit an office that would rather not single anyone out.

A box of roses answers the reception counter question, a fruit basket covers the hotel one, and zone rates and delivery terms settle anything with several addresses at once. Roses in a box stay the simplest order to make when the gift is heading to a desk.