{"id":24417,"date":"2020-12-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/?p=24417"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:25:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:25:38","slug":"japan-christmas-kfc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/japan-christmas-kfc\/","title":{"rendered":"Why KFC is the traditional Christmas meal in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Britain, Christmas means roast turkey with all the trimmings. In France, they enjoy the lavish R\u00e9veillon on Christmas Eve. Over in South Africa, it’s all about outdoor braais, or barbecues.  And in Japan, Christmas means KFC.

On December 25th every year, you\u2019ll find millions of Japanese people sitting down to a hearty meal of KFC fried chicken, with orders placed with the restaurant months in advance. It\u2019s all thanks to a very effective marketing campaign that began in the 70s. It created a whole new Japanese Christmas food tradition that has thrived for almost five decades. Read on to find out why KFC is the Christmas icon of Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of Christmas KFC in Japan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"fried<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

KFC has been the ultimate Japanese Christmas food since December 1974, just four years after the first KFC store arrived in Japan. So how did it all begin? Some say that the first KFC manager in Japan, Takeshi Okawara, told a little white lie and marketed their fried chicken as a traditional American Christmas food to encourage sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official story from KFC Japan<\/a> says that Okawara went to a Christmas party dressed as Santa Claus, and when the kids loved it, he was inspired to create the KFC Christmas specials. Another legend still says that Okawara, overheard foreigners looking for Christmas dinner traditions in Japan. Okawara then came up with the brilliant idea of a \u2018party barrel\u2019 with KFC chicken, sold at a low, all-inclusive price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This scheme, combined with the fact that the traditional turkey is nearly impossible to find in Japan (so the Christian population went for the next best thing – fried chicken), and the party barrel was an immediate hit with the locals. Whatever the true origin story, it\u2019s clear on one thing – KFC created a national phenomenon and one of the most popular Japanese Christmas food traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, around 3.6 million Japanese people<\/a> tuck into a feast of the Colonel\u2019s fried chicken specialities every Christmas. It\u2019s known by its catchy slogan – known as \u2018Kentucky for Christmas!\u2019 or \u2018kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!\u2019. And Takeshi Okawara? He went on to become the president and CEO of KFC Japan between 1984 and 2002. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED CONTENT:<\/strong> What is the most popular food at Christmas around the world?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clever Christmas marketing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Only around 1% of the Japanese population is Christian, with the majority identifying as Shinto or Buddhist. Christmas isn\u2019t even an official holiday in Japan. Meanwhile, other brands have tried and failed to replicate KFC\u2019s success in the Christmas fried chicken market. So how did KFC become a country-wide Christmas tradition and how has it continued to evolve for almost five decades? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF: <\/strong>Classic Japan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is great marketing. KFC Japan has used the same jingle in its Christmas ads for the last 20 years – the iconic “My Old Kentucky Home” song. When people hear that song, they know it\u2019s time for Christmas – and time to order their festive fried chicken! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The KFC ads that began in the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s were also beautiful campaigns that showed a family enjoying a luxurious feast of golden fried chicken together. The idea that fried chicken was an essential part of a lavish and authentic Western Christmas took off – even if that wasn\u2019t totally true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s also the coincidence that Colonel Sanders looks like Santa. He\u2019s evolved into Colonel Santa in Japan. With white facial hair and a jolly round belly, the Colonel can be found dressed up in Santa outfits all over the country come December. KFC also promotes the likeness by dressing up their Colonel Sanders statues with red-and-white Santa outfits every Christmas season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED CONTENT: <\/strong>The Quirkiest Japanese Delicacies to Try on Your Next Trip<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does KFC Japan prepare for the Christmas season?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

KFC sells millions of pieces of fried chicken every Christmas. So how do they even begin to prepare for such an event? It isn\u2019t easy and KFC Japan has preparations in motion all year, with the bulk of the preparations picking up in July. About six weeks before Christmas, the orders start arriving, with 40% of all Christmas orders made in advance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They make their biggest sales between December 23 and 25, and overall sell around 800,000 Christmas packs and 300,000 larger party barrels during Christmas. This makes up around a third of the total yearly sales for KFC Japan. The packs and barrels are customisable, and you can choose from chicken legs, tenders, nuggets and even a whole roast chicken. There’s also the tasty sides like coleslaw, shrimp gratin, and triple-berry tiramisu, the Japanese Christmas cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED CONTENT: <\/strong>Why Japanese Cuisine is the Most Exciting in the World<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s an enormous undertaking, and you\u2019ll see people queuing out the door from December 23rd and into Christmas Eve, with wait times up to two hours long. It\u2019s all hands on deck, with stores being ten times busier than usual. But for the locals, it\u2019s all worth it to make sure they secure their KFC Christmas chicken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it might seem unusual to go without the classic roast turkey on Christmas Day, fried chicken isn\u2019t too far off the mark! Plus, the British can\u2019t really say they don\u2019t eat KFC for Christmas too. The country purchases thousands of tubs of the famous KFC gravy on Christmas Eve every year. There really is something irresistibly festive in the Colonel\u2019s secret recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you like to experience a KFC Christmas feast in Japan? Let us know in the comments below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Britain, Christmas means roast turkey with all the trimmings. In France, they enjoy the lavish R\u00e9veillon on Christmas Eve. Over in South Africa, it’s all about outdoor braais, or barbecues.  And in Japan, Christmas means KFC. On December 25th every year, you\u2019ll find millions of Japanese people sitting down to a hearty meal of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":24419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4908],"tags":[1749,20749,20748,20747,3244,763],"class_list":["post-24417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-tips-news","tag-christmas-traditions","tag-japan-christmas","tag-japanese-christmas","tag-japanese-christmas-food","tag-japanese-culture","tag-japanese-food"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy KFC is the traditional Christmas meal in Japan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover why KFC became Japan\u2019s unique Christmas meal tradition, from clever marketing in the 1970s to millions enjoying fried chicken every holiday season.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/japan-christmas-kfc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why KFC is the traditional Christmas meal in Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forget the turkey... 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