All my Japanese friends and acquaintances in Tokyo, and as far out as Shimane and Fukuoka, and even my Japanese language teacher here in the US, at some point on Christmas eve or Christmas day, go for a Christmas meal at KFC, that’s right, Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s somewhat of a tradition in Japan. Fine. Whatever. Stranger practices exist.
What I find odd, however, is no one I’ve asked knows when, how, or why this practice began. I understand that the Japanese have some sort of reverence for The Colonel, but again, I don’t know why. I guess I could look it up, but I really want to hear from people who live, or have lived there, and actually know.
I found an article on it (I had never heard of this, though it’s been years since I was in Japan. The oddest thing I remember was the craze for beef jerky…wonder if they still do that).
Yup , looks like the tradition started with an ad campaign in 1974. As, xtisme says above, there were supposedly some foreign people who ordered some KFC around 1971/72 from the Aoyama branch, and the idea took off.
From here.
I heard about this a couple of years back, but I just chalked it up to ad inspired craziness.
Just for fun, here is the commercial for Christmas. It suggests that people make reservations early!
Ogilvy and Mather, eh? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
**chromaticity, *that article from 外食 is really interesting. It even mentions KFCJ introducing the concept of Christmas cake, which is just as popular and ingrained in the holiday as chicken. It seems they actually defined how Christmas is celebrated in Japan today. I’m impressed.
