Arab News Japan

TOKYO: It is Christmas, so no wonder why the Japanese go en masse for chicken – Kentucky Fried Chicken to be exact.

It all started as a wild idea of ​​Takeshi Okawara, a manager of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food chain that was immediately successful in the 1970s in Japan to market party barrels a Christmas meal intended to serve as a substitute for the traditional American turkey dinner. Okawara marketed the party barrels as a way to celebrate Christmas, a holiday which lacked widespread traditions in Japan at the time where locals were convinced that ordering KFC was an American Christmas tradition.

KFC Japan expanded the promotion nationwide in 1974 with its long running “Kentucky for Christmas” or “Kentucky Christmas” advertising campaign. Eating KFC food as a Christmas time meal has since become a widely practiced custom in Japan.

As of 2019, in Japan, Christmas sales of KFC made around Christmas Eve account for nearly five percent of annual revenue. In numbers, last year of 2019, the net sales of KFC Holdings Japan, Ltd. amounted to almost 80 billion Japanese yen (about $700 million,) up from about 74.34 billion Japanese yen in the previous  year. KFC Japan was founded in 1970 as a joint venture between the American parent and Mitsubishi Corporation. Due to an advertisement campaign in the 1970s, eating KFC food for Christmas became a popular activity in Japan. Since 2017 the company is headquartered in Yokohama.

So, in all the KFC fast food restaurants in Tokyo, Japanese people line up to collect their orders before they leave with their party barrels.

Each year, several million party buckets go by that the Japanese consume at home in place of the traditional Christmas turkey, cooked in countries with Christian traditions.

In Tokyo main central districts, Shinbashi, Ginza and Shinjuku, the ritual is always the same when customers lined up while staff come to take the order tickets and pass that on to the kitchen staff who pack the orders taken in advance in a few minutes.

On Dec. 24 and 25, it is almost impossible to take an order or eat at a restaurant in the KFC chain without having made a reservation in advance. 

In Shinjuku, the staff in charge of welcoming customers admits not knowing how far back the origin of this tradition goes, while a young staff girl carrying a sign indicating the line to pick up orders, admits that she has known this tradition since childhood. Another staff said that all Japanese like to eat chicken on Christmas which is a special day.

KFC Holdings operates the chain in Japan under a franchise agreement with U.S.-based KFC owner Yum Brands.

But as in most restaurants in Tokyo, including KFC, the impact of COVID-19 was clear. An employee at the entrance said this year there are only few reservations.