This year, Mother's Day is being celebrated amid a renewed COVID-19 lockdowns in Japan. While that is undeniably disheartening, messaging company LINE, ubiquitous throughout the island nation, seeks to lighten the mood and encourage a happy celebration. In so doing, they are introducing LINE Gifts which allows users to send gifts online, even if some families will be unable to celebrate in person.

LINE Co., Ltd. announced in a recent press release that it will offer a "Mother's Day Special Gift" for a limited time from April 13th to May 10th. LINE is a freeware app popular in Asia for messaging on electronic devices such as smartphones, tablet, and computers.

That said, the platform has integrated numerous services over the years. These services include a digital wallet, LINE Today news stream, LINE Pay, and others. According to the LINE Business Guide, LINE users in Japan represent a wide range of age groups, from teens to those over 50. Domestic MAU exceeds 86 million, and It covers more than 68% of Japan's population.

The most significant advantage of the "Mother's Day Special Gift" promotion is that mothers can directly choose what they want within a price range selected by the giver. Naturally, the prices of available gifts are not displayed in the candidate gift list that mothers will receive and select from. In addition to this, mothers can conversely select several items using a like button to create a wish list that givers can also select from.

Either way, the service offers a convenient way to celebrate the holiday. This is especially true of those still thinking about what to buy for Mother's Day gifts. Users may even use LINE's messaging service--dare I suggest--to ask what their mothers want directly.

Selecting a gift

All in all, LINE makes the process pretty straightforward and painless. There are just a few steps to follow:

  • Select "Support Gift Selection" from the top page of LINE Gifts.
  • Select your mother from "Select a friend."
  • Select a price range that fits your budget and set the option to "Mother's Day."
  • Tap "Send gift candidate list" at the bottom of the screen to send the candidate list via LINE talk.

Fortunately, the service has been available for a while. This has given Twitter users the chance to demo the service and share their experiences for our benefit:

“I'm going to use LINE Gift for Mother's Day. LINE Gift is very convenient.”

"You can also send flowers with LINE Gifts! ?? That’s fantastic! I would be very happy if I received flowers, and I hope my mother will be happy too!”

I will send a LINE Gift for Mother's Day this year.

“When I saw LINE gifts, there was a special feature for Mother's Day, and it was a little cheaper.”

LINE gifts also makes giving physical, deliverable gifts very easy. Through the service, senders don't need to know the other party's address. This is the case because recipients set their shipping address from their end of the platform.

On the other hand, some users don't want to burden the other party with setting the delivery address. This is Japan, after all, where considerate behavior is king. In that case, the giver can set the shipping address when it is known. Being Mother's Day, it is easy to imagine that most will be able to choose this option. Either way, anyone interested in this handy way of giving gifts can find more information on the LINE Gift website. Happy Mother’s Day!


By - Luke Mahoney.