November 11th is Pocky & Pretz Day! Eat Pocky and Pretz with Friends!

Pocky & Pretz Day was determined in 1999. Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd., the company that manufactures and sells Pocky and Pretz submitted and application, and it was in 1999 that the Japan Anniversary Association approved it. Japan Anniversary Association manages various ‘○○ Anniversary’ dates set up by Japanese organizations and companies.

Pocky and Pretz are both snacks in stick shapes, easy to grab with two fingers. Because its thin long shape is reminiscent of the number 1, the day of the year with most consecutive 1’s, November 11th became Pocky & Pretz Day.

Pocky began as the world’s first stick shaped chocolate snack. It has two parts where one is coated with chocolate and the other without chocolate for grabbing. It arrived as a revolutionary snack that keeps your fingers from getting chocolate when eating with hands. Today, it is sold in 30 different countries and regions, but there are many Japan only limited-edition flavors, and there are Japanese Pocky fans all over the world.

The Pretz concept took hint from the German traditional savory snack, pretzels, and is a long-seller product created in 1963 by the food company Ezaki Glico to enter the snack market. Due to its stick shape, unlike the traditional pretzels shape, it became Glico’s trademark product that’s easy to eat and original. When it first hit the shelves, there was a lot of flavors for grown-ups, but they experimented with sweet flavors for younger audience too which resulted in a huge success. Soon, its popularity became widespread throughout Japan.