Christmas was, and still is, a secular holiday in Japan — a country where less than 1% of the population identifies as Christian — and in the 1970s many people didn’t have established family Christmas traditions.
That’s where KFC came in. The company launched its “Kentucky for Christmas” marketing campaign in 1974 and the first iteration of the party buckets soon followed.
Some reports say that Takeshi Okawara, who managed the country’s first KFC and later became CEO of KFC Japan, falsely marketed fried chicken as a traditional American Christmas food to drum up sales.
But according to KFC Japan, Okawara went to a Christmas party dressed as Santa. When the kids loved it, he saw a business opportunity.
In 2020, the global KFC website published its own explainer, noting that the original idea for the campaign came when a foreign customer who visited KFC in Tokyo on Christmas day said, “I can’t get turkey in Japan, so I have no choice but to celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken”. The report says a team member on the brand’s Japan sales team overheard the remark and used it as inspiration to launch the first Christmas campaign.
Meanwhile, in 2017 the host of “The Rising Sun Show” — a 30-minute TV show produced by the U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs — interviewed a KFC meister, who said the concept caught on after a foreign customer asked KFC to deliver fried chicken in a Santa Claus costume on Christmas.
Conflicting origin stories aside, KFC managed to capture the imagination of Japanese diners and create a national phenomenon.
I – Word Understanding
Secular – no religious / spiritual basis
Iteration – doing something again and again
Drum up – to increase (business activities)
Meister – a person expert in a particular thing
II – Have Your Say
1, Which story about KFC Christmas Feast have you heard? Why do you think KFC was and still is being embraced by the Japanese for Christmas? Do you have any alternative food for Christmas?
2, Christmas is a Christian religious celebration. Japan is not a Christian country. To you and to most Japanese people, what is the common notion about Christmas? Why do we celebrate Christmas? What are the other activities Japanese people do on Christmas Day?
