Before my first visit to Japan, I was reading blogs everywhere on life there. I happened to stumble on this: 

“Christmas in Japan was definitely… Different. Apparently Japanese Christmas is a couple’s holiday like Valentine’s day. It was definitely a different atmosphere. But they really do try to act like Americans, so they eat KFC and cake.”
(See her full post here.)

I wasn’t so sure myself, but I thought, “Hey, I’ll take it with a grain of salt. I mean, she’s the one who’s ACTUALLY there, so I guess I’ll wait and see.”

And wait and see I did. 
I arrived in Japan in May, and I was going to be there until September the following year! That got me excited! 

After seven months of waiting, my first cold December arrived. In spirit of the season, I would tell my friends, “Merry Christmas!” And many others, even my Japanese friends, would say the same to me! Just like in America, I thought. 

Then the day actually came. My partner and I were both invited to the house of one of our Japanese friends, for dinner. We rang the doorbell, took off our coats, and went in. Leaving our shoes in the genkan, we knelt down at the dining table. Our hostess went into the other room and came back with a box in her hands. 

The red and white labels were familiar to me, and I remembered the blog post  I had read over a year ago. 

IT WAS ALL TRUE!

What a surprise! I couldn’t believe it! But, here I was, in a Japanese home, eating KFC on Christmas! 

For dessert, we had another unique Japanese traditional Christmas food item: the Christmas Cake. 

It’s a delicious sponge cake with generally two layers. In between the layers is a creme with sliced strawberries, and the cake is topped with whipped creme as the frosting and whole strawberries. As you can see in the photo, ours also had blueberries and white chocolate. 

It was really delicious, and a great way to finish off a Christmas meal. 

SO, WHY THE KFC TRADITION?

I knew this question would come up! 

You see, a long time ago, America first came into contact with Japan when Perry’s ship landed somewhere near the Yokohama area (south of Tokyo). 

Fast-forward to post-WWII Japan, and American culture began to have an increased influence on the Japanese. They started to adopt new holidays and customs, and that included Christmas. 

However, there was a problem! In America, the traditional Christmas dinner consisted of mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and many other food items, the most important of which was the turkey. 

In America, the turkey roams free. If you want a turkey, you can easily buy one, or obtain a hunting license and get one yourself. In Japan… it’s not so easy! 

The rich could afford this luxurious western Christmas dinner, but the rest of Japan didn’t have any way of obtaining the needed bird, so they looked to chicken instead. 

At the same time, there was a new food company that had recently opened some branches in Japan. Its main menu revolved around chicken! This was an opportunity–a golden one–that they would not let pass. 

They started advertising immediately, and would eventually become the face of the “American Christmas” in Japan. 

Kentucky Fried Chicken even had an ad campaign that said, “Christmas is Kentucky.” 

It gained ground. 

So, that’s the quick cut-and-dried story of how this interesting custom came to be. Does everyone in Japan do it? Well, no. But there are enough to see that it is a trend in Japan, and a fun one at that! 

HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT LIFE IN JAPAN?

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And, as always, thanks for reading! 

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