Of all the holidays manufactured by greeting card companies, no manufactured greeting card holiday is worst than Valentine’s Day. Arbor Day is a close second, but that’s not important here.

What is important is that the universal feelings of expectations that can’t ever be met and that one is an incomplete mutant if you’re not locking lips on Feb. 14 is also Japanese.

But rather than wallow and write lyrics to bad goth music — and don’t say you’ve never done that — Japanese men and women celebrate their, um… celibacy. Calling their movement “himote,” mo-toko (dudes) and mo-jo (chicks) eschew any activities that attract the opposite sex and relationships that will lead to romantic entanglements.

On the upside, there’s never any awkwardness about who pays for dinner. Or whether watching porn on a date is a good idea.

Mo-Tokos and Mo-Jos feel that relationships hinder “the potential for personal realization,” which, strangely, is exactly how I feel about my ex-girlfriends.

Himote: Japan’s unpopular men and women boycott love

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