See Why Japanese People Love To Eat KFC To Celebrate Christmas

JAKARTA - Like many families in other parts of the world, families in Japan look forward to Christmas food which is usually eaten with family. Uniquely, Japanese people have a tradition of buying as many KFCs as possible for Christmas celebrations.

"In Japan, it's the custom to eat chicken at Christmas," said a Japanese woman in her 30s named Naomi.

"Every year, I order a party barrel and enjoy it with my family. I love the good chicken and the cute illustrated plates that come as a bonus." he added.

Every year since the mid-1980s, a life-size bust of Colonel Sanders has welcomed countless locals and tourists across the country. According to figures released by the management of fast food restaurants in America, KFC Japan made a profit of 6.9 billion yen (about 63 million US dollars) from December 20 to 25, 2018, with queues starting December 23.

KFC Japan's busiest day is usually December 24, during which time they typically sell for about five to 10 times more than a typical day.

"Towards Christmas, a KFC ad was playing on TV, looking really good. We ordered early then went to the shop at the appointed time to pick up our baskets," said Naomi.

To better understand how and why fried chicken is synonymous with Christmas in Japan, one has to go back several decades. After a period of austerity following World War II in the 1940s and 50s, the Japanese economy began to take off.

"The strength of the Japanese economy is going through the roof and people have the money to enjoy consumer culture for the first time," said Ted Bestor, a professor of Social Anthropology at Harvard University who has studied Japanese food and culture in the past.

"Because the US was a cultural powerhouse at that time, there was great interest in Western fashion, food, overseas travel, Japan was really open."

Citing CNN, Saturday, December 26, when Ted Bestor was living in central Tokyo in the early 1970s, many foreign franchises sprang up. During this period of rapid globalization, the fast food industry in Japan grew 600% between 1970 and 1980.

KFC became part of the development, opening outlets in Japan for the first time in Nagoya in 1970. In 1981, KFC opened 324 stores, more than 30 stores a year and generating around 200 million US dollars per year.

Christmas is a secular holiday in Japan, a country where less than 1 percent of the population identify as Christian. In the 1970s many people didn't have family Christmas traditions. That's where KFC comes in.

The company launched a "Kentucky for Christmas" marketing campaign in 1974. Some reports say that Takeshi Okawara, who ran the country's first KFC and later became CEO of KFC Japan, marketed fried chicken as a traditional American Christmas treat to increase sales.

But according to KFC Japan, Okawara went to the Christmas party dressed as Santa. When the children liked him, he saw business opportunities. Meanwhile, in 2017, the host of a 30-minute TV show produced by US Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs interviewed a KFC chief, saying that the concept emerged after a foreign customer asked KFC to deliver fried chicken in a Santa costume at Christmas.

Another source said Okawara had only heard of westerners looking for a substitute for turkey and thinking of a viable substitute. Despite conflicting origin stories, KFC managed to capture the imagination of Japanese visitors and created a national phenomenon that lives on to the present day.