Strange Japanese people eat Christmas with KFC fried chicken

Every Christmas season, Ryohei Ando traditionally gathered together with his family. Like his father used to do when he was young, his two children will now reach into the red-and-white fried chicken bag and find the most delicious fried chicken in the bag.

Yes, it is the KFC Christmas of the Ando family.

Every Christmas season, about 3.6 million Japanese families will buy this fried chicken for Noel party.

This may seem strange to people who do not live in Japan, but the Ando family and millions of others will not be able to bear Christmas celebrations without Kentucky, KFC fried chicken.

Every Christmas season, about 3.6 million Japanese families will buy this American fast-food fried chicken for the Christmas party, and this has become a tradition throughout the country.

"My children think this is natural," said Ando, ​​40, who works in the marketing department of a sporting goods company in Tokyo.

Of course, besides millions of people celebrating Christmas with KFC, there are many other people in Japan who consider this a Valentine's Day-like romantic occasion, and couples who mark with a dinner dinner in the house. more advanced goods.

For some other Japanese families, Christmas is noticed but there is no special organization.

But for Christmas organizers, this is not simply going to a restaurant and ordering.

The demand for KFC fried chicken during Christmas in Japan is so high that many people are willing to line up for hours to buy

December is the busy month of KFC chain stores in Japan - with the number of goods sold in some places during the Christmas period maybe 10 times higher than the usual order volume.

To get a special KFC Christmas dinner, people often have to order many weeks in advance, and those who do not pre-order will have to queue long, sometimes lasting hours.

Japan's KFC Christmas tradition starts with a story from advertising that any Japanese-oriented company needs to learn, it is almost an anecdote in this holiday.

"Kentucky celebrates Christmas"

According to Japanese KFC spokesman Motoichi Nakatani, this tradition began to rely on Takeshi Okawara , Japan's first KFC store manager.

Right after the first restaurant of the fast food chain opened in 1970, Okawara woke up in the middle of the night and hastily recorded an idea that pops out for him from a dream: selling a "party gift box" on Christmas. Born.

Okawara cherished a dream after overhearing a foreign couple in his restaurant about how much they missed turkeys when Christmas came, Ms. Nakatani described.

Okawara hopes a Christmas party with fried chicken may be a good alternative, so he started promoting his "party gift box" as a way to celebrate Christmas.

In 1974, KFC plans to promote this product nationwide, and call it Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii , meaning Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas.

The project was as successful as the wind, and Okawara, who studied at Harvard University, also advanced quickly. He became President and CEO of KFC Japanese Fried Chicken from 1984-2002.

There are also many other people in Japan who consider it a romantic Valentine-like occasion.

"Party gift boxes" for Christmas almost immediately became a phenomenon all over the country, said Joonas Rokka, associate professor of marketing at Emlyon School of Economics in France. He studied KFC fried chicken Christmas in Japan as a model of promotion campaign.

"It filled a void," Rokka said. "Japan does not have a Christmas tradition, and then KFC appears and says, this is what you should do during the Christmas season."

This company's Christmas meal adverts show happy Japanese families gathered around gift boxes of fried chicken.

Not only are chicken breast and chicken thighs, the party is transformed into a special family food box filled with fried chicken, pastries and wine.
This year, the company sells Kentucky Christmas dinners, ranging from Japanese chicken boxes worth 3,780 yen (US $ 32), to a "high-class" roast chicken and meals. The dish is priced up to 5,800 Japanese yen.

According to KFC, Christmas meals account for about one-third of the sales of this chain in Japan.

The shops also redecorated the image of the company, Colonel Sanders grinned with a white beard, now dressed in Santa Claus on the occasion. In a country that honors values ​​with elders, Sanders the old man in red immediately becomes the symbol of the festival.

"The strangest thing"

This phenomenon is unique in Japan - and can be considered strange for other countries. The idea doesn't seem to be accepted in the home of KFC fried chicken, Kevin Gillespie, said the chef of two restaurants in the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

"KFC for Christmas? That's one of the strangest things I've ever heard . " Gillespie said. "If you bring a bucket of fried chicken to a Christmas dinner, to be honest, I'll be angry with you."

It is not necessarily a breakthrough of KFC products, Gillespie said. The basic idea is to bring fast food to the Christmas night party "probably be considered by most people to be rude , " Gillespie said.

This phenomenon is unique in Japan - and can be considered strange for other countries.

However, in Japan, where about 1% of the population is Christian, Christmas is not an official holiday, Rokka said. So the idea that the whole family will gather all day making bacon or turkey and the side dishes is not really practical. Instead, they gathered together with a fried chicken bucket.

"This is another sign of globalization, where consumer rituals spread to other countries and are interpreted in a completely different sense," Rokka said. "Now there is nothing unusual about the Ikea shop around the world. The idea of ​​KFC celebrating Christmas is just using consumerism and directing it to a holiday."

Reason to reunite

Having traveled abroad many times, Ando knew his country was probably the only country to receive Christmas with a party with fried chicken buckets. But he considered this a tradition rather than a corporate promotion.

With Ando, ​​he still plans to buy KFC chickens for his children this Christmas. But he also went to the bakery to buy Christmas cakes.

On Christmas Eve, the family will gather around the KFC fried chicken bucket, just like the atmosphere Mr. Ando once enjoyed as a child, and like his children will also make their children later. .

"It is like a symbol of family reunion," Ando said. "It's not because of chicken, but because the family is gathered together, and then fried chicken is just part of the reunion."