Why Japan celebrates Christmas with KFC - BBC

[TomSea]

Why Japan celebrates Christmas with KFC
How a fast-food marketing campaign turned into a widespread Yuletide tradition for millions.
Every Christmas, Ryohei Ando gathers his family together for a holiday tradition. Just like their father did as a child, his two children will reach deep into a red-and-white bucket and pick out the best piece of fried chicken they can find.

Yes, it’s a Merry KFC Christmas for the Ando family. It may seem odd anywhere outside Japan, but Ando’s family and millions of others would never let a Christmas go by without Kentucky Fried Chicken. Every Christmas season an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to fried chicken from the American fast-food chain, in what has become a nationwide tradition.

Every Christmas season, an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to Kentucky Fried Chicken, in what has become a nationwide tradition

More: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161216-why-japan-celebrates-christmas-with-kfc

[jmyrlefuller]

Well, Japan isn't exactly what one would consider a Christian nation, so the fact that they mark Christmas at all is remarkable in itself.

But have at it.

[Neverdul]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKl0MtN_lf4

[TomSea]

I once purchased an already prepared duck from an Asian store, it was in winter and just seemed like something different to do.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

I once purchased an already prepared duck from an Asian store, it was in winter and just seemed like something different to do.

Is that because a pack of dogs ate your turkey?

[The_Reader_David]

Well, Japan isn't exactly what one would consider a Christian nation, so the fact that they mark Christmas at all is remarkable in itself.

But have at it.

Actually, religion is Japan is very strange (as is almost all of Japanese culture).  There is a saying "the Japanese are born as Shintoists, marry as Christians and die as Buddhists."  Basically, the Japanese are syncretists and believe/celebrate whatever bits or pieces of any religion they encounter that they find congenial.  Of course, there is still a sizable Roman Catholic population mostly in the vicinity of Nagasaki dating to the Portuguese mission in the -- despite the ruthless persecution that was undertaken (cf. the new Scorsese film based on Endo's novel Silence) -- and an Orthodox Christian presence dating from the mission of St. Nicholas of Japan, the chaplain to the Russian diplomatic mission in Tokyo in the early 1900's (whose first convert was a samurai who threatened to kill him for spreading the forbidden faith).

[Frank Cannon]

Japan also has used panty vending machines. I don't trust their judgment on cultural issues.

[Gefn]

I like KFC and Popeye's chicken. I'm down for this.

[TomSea]

I was reading or listening to something the other day,

We whipped Japan, we pulverized them but it was not long after World War II; that we became "close friends" with Japan, really by the end of the 1950s.

And here, is another share of culture with Japan.

While nowadays, we have these long wars.

[geronl]

I once purchased an already prepared duck from an Asian store, it was in winter and just seemed like something different to do.

Scrooge bought a duck too, it's more traditional than a Turkey.

[HonestJohn]

Some sample menus from KFC (this is so popular that people have to place their orders 1-2 months in advance, then come in and pick up the meal):





And a YouTube explanation:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFw-TZzqX8M

[ABX]

I spent almost a year in Japan as an exchange student back in High School and one thing I remember being very awed by was, even though Christmas isn't an official holiday there, they went all out for it almost as much as we do. It was an excuse to pull out anything western, put up as many lights as they could, and shop. I remember everyone got dates on Christmas eve and we all dressed up and treated it like a prom. Fast food chains were just starting to boom then but nothing like now, I remember we went to a French place.

Example of the all out they go for decorating in Kyoto.

[HonestJohn]

Japan also has used panty vending machines. I don't trust their judgment on cultural issues.

Some pictures of the vending machines. (warning, NSFW)

http://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/1192245/size/tl-horizontal_main/12-adult-vending-machines-selling-gold-bars-and-used-ladies-underwear
https://cdn.techinasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/110827_nakano_broadway_otaku_tokyo_shops_anime_vinyl_toys_7.jpg

They are just 500 yen!!!

PARTY!!!

┗( ^o^)┛≡┏( ^o^)┓≡┗( ^o^)┛

[ABX]

Japan also has used panty vending machines. I don't trust their judgment on cultural issues.

..and you'll find such freaky things in part of this country too. You don't judge all of the US based on how small subsets act. I know there is a reputation people think they know about Japan, but it is very much a minority. It is like judging all of the US based on what one would see in San Francisco Pride parades or Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street. They are a lot more modest and introverted than people here realize because what we see and read about on YouTube only represents the most extreme.

[geronl]

..and you'll find such freaky things in part of this country too.

The "legal" age in Japan seems to be 13, so a bit more freaky than in this country

[geronl]

Meanwhile Christmas in South Korea.

Dear Santa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL34w0xql7s

All I want for Christmas is you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=005kh2-GFAM

[Frank Cannon]

..and you'll find such freaky things in part of this country too. You don't judge all of the US based on how small subsets act. I know there is a reputation people think they know about Japan, but it is very much a minority. It is like judging all of the US based on what one would see in San Francisco Pride parades or Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street. They are a lot more modest and introverted than people here realize because what we see and read about on YouTube only represents the most extreme.

LOL. You keep telling yourself that. Japan is a wasteland. There is a reason that they are dying off and probably be finished as a race in less than 100 years.

Just so you know, singlehood has hit an all-time high in Japan, especially among men. According to a survey conducted by the News Post Seven website, over 70 percent of Japanese males in their 20s don’t have girlfriends. Recruit Inc.’s Bridal Research Institute says that 35 percent of men in their 20s and 30s have never once had a relationship. Nearly 30 percent of men in their early 30s are virgins. The numbers are slightly better for women, but it’s a bad, bad time to be out there in the dating scene.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2015/05/04/language/dating-japan-never-used-difficult-creepy/#.WFjhkH1mXIU

They are all self absorbed in their own fetishes to the point that women hire men to sit with them when they go out to dinner. Men hire women to cuddle with them for short spells. They place is as f'ed as it gets and is not even in the same realm as Bourbon St, Las Vegas or even the Folsom Street Fair.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

[ABX]

The "legal" age in Japan seems to be 13, so a bit more freaky than in this country

It is actually 18. You'll need to right click and click translate but this is the civil code that states that. http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S22/S22HO164.html#1000000000002000000008000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

There used to be on of the small islands that still ran like a 16th century  fishing village that was thirteen a few decades ago but national civil law changed that.  It wasn't some weird preverseness, it was just like his people in this country used to marry at that age too. Times change.