Tradition with fried chicken
Why the Japanese celebrate Christmas at KFC
At Christmas for Kentucky Fried Chicken – for many Japanese it is hard to imagine any other way
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It has been a custom in Japan since the 1970s: Kentucky Fried Chicken is eaten at Christmas. There are different versions of how the tradition came about. It doesn’t matter to the fast food company.
Every country has its own customs for Christmas. Although the proportion of Christians in Japan is extremely low, many people also celebrate Christmas there – as a symbol of love and togetherness, for which families and friends meet. The Japanese also have a very special tradition: They celebrate Christmas with fast food in the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
For many Japanese, KFC and Christmas are inseparable. On Christmas Eve they go to one of the restaurants or take the Christmas menus that the fast food chain offers every year for this occasion to the dining table at home. But how did this tradition come about, which many Europeans find strange? The representations differ about this, at least in some details.
“KFC for Christmas” – Success of an advertising campaign
The custom established itself in the 1970s. According to the company’s official account, it goes back to the owner of the first KFC restaurant in Japan, which opened in 1970. Takeshi Okawara heard about an American living in Japan who was looking for an alternative to traditional turkey for Christmas and ultimately decided to make do with the fried chicken from KFC. Then the KFC visit to the Christmas market developed expats a tradition in Japan – until the company saw further potential in it.
In 1974, for example, KFC started a large-scale advertising campaign in the Asian country with the slogan “Kentucky for Christmas”. The campaign was a resounding success, since then on Christmas Eve the Japanese have been flocking to the KFC branches, although Christmas is not an official holiday in Japan. “There was no tradition at Christmas, so KFC just came and said: You should do that at Christmas,” said marketing professor Joonas Rokka from Emlyon Business School in France, explaining the phenomenon to the BBC.
Did it all start with a little dizziness?
Takeshi Okawara tells the story a little differently. He reported to “Business Insider” that the KFC hype in Japan was due to a different kind of marketing ploy – namely a little hoax. Okawara, the operator of the country’s first KFC, found it difficult to make money from the business at the beginning. It was more or less by chance that Okawara disguised himself as Santa Claus for a school class and also brought some of the well-known buckets with fried chicken. Other schools and kindergartens quickly booked him – so he not only delighted the children, but also more and more adults.
Okawara and his Christmas KFC appearances became so popular that he was even interviewed on a national radio show. There the moderator asked him if people in the US and Europe would also eat chicken at Christmas. Okawara replied, “Yes.” “I know people don’t eat chicken, they eat turkey,” said Okawara. “I still regret it. But people liked it.” He was aware of how popular Western traditions are with the Japanese.
Kentucky Fried Chicken makes millions this Christmas
So where exactly the custom comes from remains unclear. The fact is that in the years that followed, Kentucky Fried Chicken firmly linked its own brand name to the festival in the minds of the population. According to the BBC, 3.6 million families in Japan visit a KFC restaurant every Christmas and long lines form at the cash registers. And for the company, Christmas turns into a gold mine: The family menus for Christmas start at around 30 euros, KFC earns millions every year with that alone.
Sources: BBC / “Business Insider”