24 Days of Tradition: KFC Dinner
When most people think of the holiday season, it conjures up thoughts of home-cooked meals, singing, maybe a religious ceremony or two. But for Japan, the holidays are synonymous with Kentucky Fried Chicken. That’s right, families in Japan tuck in to a nice bucket of Colonel Sanders’ famous fried chicken for their Christmas meal every year.
The tradition was introduced to Japan in 1974 by Takeshi Okawara, the manager of the first KFC store in the country. Japan had few Christmas traditions simply because only a very small percentage of the population is Christian. Okawara saw an opportunity to bring in a new tradition and launched the “Kentucky for Christmas” marketing campaign. It was so effective that today, Japan is the third biggest market for KFC worldwide (following the USA and China) and Okawara was made the CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan from 1984 to 2002.
In 2018, it’s estimated that 3.6 million families in Japan will be eating KFC for Christmas. In fact, so many people participate that they have to pre-order their meals weeks in advance or face hours-long lines to snag some chicken on the day of. The fast-food giant has even started offering Christmas specialties, including roast chicken (instead of the classic fried chicken), stuffing, cake and wine.
So what do you think? Will you be trading your traditional holiday meal for a bucket of KFC? Come back tomorrow to read about a holiday tradition that originates in the Ukraine! You can also check out previously featured traditions by following any of these links:
