 Christmas is often a time for heavy eating and drinking, and the Japanese don't miss out. But unlike many other countries where there are traditional Christmas dishes, Japan does not have any, and a quick look at a regular family's Christmas feast shows that anything, from sushi to chinese steamed shrimps, are acceptable at the buffet. However, there is one specialty that many Japanese like to have on the table next to those items – fried chicken from KFC. Today, it is possibly the closest thing in Japan to a Christmas tradition. This one customer must have made quite an impression because the following year KFC Japan started a country-wide Christmas campaign, which since then has tied it to the Christmas culture of Japan. No other company had thus influenced the public's Christmas habits since cake-maker Fujiya brought in the “Christmas Cake” in the 1920s. But while Fujiya's cakes had to be made to match Japanese sensibilities, KFC's chickens are exactly the same as how Colonel Sanders imagined them. And the Japanese just dig it. Every year in early December, KFC restaurants around the country start putting up order sheets to deal with the heavy demands during the Christmas period. Numbers show that their sales soar in December, making twice as much profit than in other months. It has become so common today to eat fried chicken at Christmas, that other franchises have tried to jump on the Christmas fried chicken band-wagon. Yet KFC remains by far the most popular andthe company’s public relations' representative Ichiro Takatsuki says that the last year or two have been their most successful in the past 15 years. Today, KFC has 1150 restaurants across Japan. So, what's the secret ingredient to KFC’s success? For one, they watch how family compositions are changing. In the 1970s, the eight-piece Christmas bucket for four people was the most popular. But today, families have become smaller and Christmas has become an event to spend with your significant other, rather than with the family. So KFC started selling a two-person set last year which proved to be a hit. They often add new specialties to their menu, too. Their Premium Roasted Chicken menu, which started a few years ago at a whopping price of almost $75, sells out every year without even having to be heavily promoted. Actually, Takatsuki claimed that the lack of promotion is also key to their success. As each restaurant deals with raw stocks, there is a limit to the number of meals they can produce per day, even at Christmas. While it helps maintain the quality of their products, they are careful to never over-promote Christmas, for fear of disappointing customers. “Imagine if people came because they saw a commercial on TV, only to find out that we're sold out?” Takatsuki asked. “That would be disastrous.” So because of its success, Japan's KFC waits to start its Christmas promotion until as late as possible, only to pull most of it off before everyone gets too excited. How about that for a measure of popularity? See all our Japan Eats coverage and get more on CNNGo and read McDonald's vs. KFC for Japan's best 'festive feast' Is there a food that makes the holidays bright in your home? We want to hear all about it. Immortalize your food tradition in words, recipes, pictures or video, submit it as an iReport and we'll show off some of our favorites on CNN's Eatocracy food blog through the end of the holiday season. |
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hi
Congratulations Japan!!!! Santa is bringing you Type 2 diabetes for Christmas!
That is what the nba needs. Boycott all games. The players and the owners both won, the fans lost.
YUM, Inc (KFC, TACO Bell and Pizza Hut) is only at the BEGINNING of a HUGE Asian push. Restaurants are going up like gas stations. I wanted to buy in a bit when they split 2:1 about 10 years ago. Never did and, for the past 2 years, have been trying to sell the idea to hubby. As a first-timer, I am a bit too hesitant, I guess... Anyway, seems like a no-brainer to me. A company that did well enuff to saturate their market at home, now also operating in a wide-open market with (Initial) significant, demonstrated interest sounds very promising. Off to check today's numbers and try to do my little part to assist the economic recovery around here.
Never mind... Have just gotten to read some of the other posts here. Mine is clearly "out of line" or, at least, out of sync. *sigh* I don't know why I didn't even consider the fact that these boards would be so... yahoo. Carry on...
What a propaganda, advertising fluff piece! I've lived in Tokyo for 5 years now, and happen to be right across the street from a KFC, and I've never heard of one Japanese person ordering KFC for christmas. The Japanese don't even have a day off for christmas and at this time of year they are celebrating the emperor's birthday. The christmas cake is a real thing however.
It's funny how a KFC Christmas dinner seems odd to people but a turkey dinner doesn't. Why? They're both poultry; one of them is just a different bird, prepared in a different way.
first we nuke em, indoctrinate them into our religion, and now fried chicken, damn, theyre dumb
Not as dumb as your comment.
PS - Check out what the Chinese are doing to Christmas in the USA. I'll bet most Christmas presents and virtually all Christmas decorations are made in China. First they take our jobs, then they sell us stuff made by the people who took our jobs. We even fight over the stuff on black friday.
Boy, are WE dumb.
I hate to point this out sir, but if a non-english speaker without a college education takes your job from a socialist state than you are [fill in the blank]
No one in China looks to be taking my job, because I saw the trend and kept in front of it. not hard.
Dumb comment from a dumbo.
Spoken like a true, uneducated bigot! Shame on you, somebody should wash your mouth out with soap, or perhaps bleach might work better.
Joey, you do not deserve to live... Go away, read your Bible that was made in China and pray that you will be smart one day.
joey....?
Come on Joey what are you thinking . where is your heart. The Japaneese are humans just like we are infact they are very bright people. you on the other hand im not so sure. your remarks are very insensitive I hope you pray and have a change of heart while you yet can.
Ed
well, how about the nation shooting at each other for 200 dollar basket sneakers that cost 10 dollars to make in china.
Google: "Diabetes trends in Japan". Is it possible this fast food mania has something to do with it? KFC as a Christmas tradition? Really?
YARD BIRD!!!!! YUM!
I lived in Japan as late as the mid 90s and this was not a phenomena I ever heard of from any Japanese friends. The article makes it sound as though Christmas dinner is a common thing in Japan. I don't know about the past 15 years but when I lived there people didn't celebrate Christmas at all, never mind have some kind of Christmas feast. My coworkers celebrated "Eve" which was a romantic night with your boy friend or girlfriend eating out and the guy giving the girl an expensive piece of jewelry. Christmas day was an ordinary non-holiday workday. I remember how strange it felt to be at work on Christmas and no one says, "Merry Christmas" on that day. I did say it once to one person who correct me and told me that the night before had been "Eve" and that that day wasn't a holiday, silly!
KFC is also HUGE in China. You see them all over the place. Its the biggest, most successful restaraunt chain by far.
Its too bad its ont an independent stock, it'd probably be worth some huge valuation.
Just like Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas. What do the Chinese eat?
Chinese food.
Who cares? This is about Japan.
rice
Gefilte fish
Just like Italian Americans on Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrate with piles of ravioli, spaghetti, tortellini, parmesan, lasagna, mussels, canolis, etc. Anything wrong with this picture? I will leave it up to you.
Just like people eat food on a daily basis... But what does food eat?
latke
Answer: No one cares, this article is about Japan.
Can't China get their own travel articles? Why do they need to butt into everybody else's attention?
KFC for Christmas dinner in Japan?...another fine contribution from western culture, aka idiocracy
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) should really be renamed KFCGH (Kentucky Fried Cornish Game Hen) because the chicken pieces have gotten so small. Admittedly the taste has always been good, making the company a success. Still, there's the obvious grease factor too. KFC is not serving up diet food.
The last time I went there was a few years ago (the first time in perhaps 5 years), ordering one of their 3 piece "meals" which included a biscuit, some sort of potato things, a miniature container of cole slaw, and perhaps a quart of soda. The chicken was so small it got lost in the palm of my hand. The whole mess cost around $8. I'll never go back.
And that's the difference between KFC Japan and it's customers, and KFC USA and it's customers.
2 pieces original recipe, 1 bbq, 5 nuggets is a meal for 2 people costing about $25, and they keep going back.
http://d2pw6fradsb499.cloudfront.net/*8DXzTg/xmas/images/menu/syousai/menu_c_s_05.jpg
A) You've to too much time on your hands to write such a detailed dissertation about a fast food meal you ate five years ago.
B) KFC seems to be doing just fine without you.
Fu ck you. Di ck head.
i wanna eat her
lol
If you're on a diet you shouldn't be in a KFC, m0r0n.
Well, I guess if it can be a Jewish tradition (at lease in the NE US) to eat Chinese food on Christmas, why can't the Japanese eat good old American friend checken!?!?
Shrimps? Really, CNN?
"a quick look at a regular family's Christmas feast shows that anything, from sushi to chinese steamed shrimps, are acceptable at the buffet."
You do understand that they were referring to a normal Japanese family, correct?
no kidding man, I cant believe a journalist would use the word "shrimps".
now...FIX IT CNN! Ya look stupid.
oh? lmaaao. This is one of those pot/kettle moments, isn't it? ;)
Exactly. Er'body knows it's Scrimps!
CNN editors are not as dull as you might believe. I would examine the slang definition while you are at it...with perhaps a bit of self reflection.
Home > Library > Literature & Language > Dictionary
(shrĭmp)
n., pl., shrimp, or shrimps.
Any of various small, chiefly marine decapod crustaceans of the suborder Natantia, many species of which are edible, having a compressed or elongated body with a well-developed abdomen, long legs and antennae, and a long spinelike projection of the carapace.
Any of various similar crustaceans, such as certain isopods and amphipods.
Slang.
A person regarded as unimportant.
A person who is small in stature.
intr.v., shrimped, shrimp·ing, shrimps.
To fish for shrimp.
"Shrimps" is (also) correct, but "Tha" is not! ;) I apologize. I couldn't resist. It is we who too often assume that something that doesn't sound right to our own ears is, in fact, incorrect.
Yeah! What HE said! What he quoted from a dictionary, actually, but who cares?
Funny thing about KFC is I really like their chicken, but I think they should change their sign...the one showing Harlan Sanders on it to a tattoed and pierced Mexican because for the last ten years, those are the only ones I've seen working at KFC's
That's why they use the Col
I made it half way through the article, then had to stop. The images of KFC started growing and I am still resisting the
urge to drive down there right now. I'm going to sue CNN for causing this.
Every body loves Chicken It probably just the way you cook it
Why thank you!! Wait... **sheer terror**
So apparently a joke about being a typing chicken and cannibalistic for liking KFC flags comments for moderation.
BUMMER!
Sorry, CNN.
Beat you to this by one day on whatdoyouknowshow.com
Um .. am I the only one that licked the screen?
No. And it isn't wrong!
Try Turducken.
Remember Pearl Harbor? Try remembering self respect you sack of filth
Now I want it for dinner...way to go CNN, the closest one is a hassle but I might just have to go...damn!
You are a disgusting and foul human being. I hope you, your children, your parents, your sibilings, your entire family line all die in a manner infinitely more horrific than each and every tsunami death.
KFC is awesome, people who eat meat just need to admit it.
ANYTHING fried is better! Well there are a few things that aren't good no matter WHAT you do.... like doggie doo and lima beans. I stray though.
I know... it isn't healthy, no one wants to admit it is super yummy... that is why everyone is downing fried chicken in the closet. Even the most hardcore of health nuts can't resist fried chicken when it is waved under their nose.
Ummm... yummy. With coleslaw.
It's sad that a marketing campaign ran by a corporate fast food giant was able to brainwash and ingrain into the people of Japan that groveling over greasy, fattening, artery-clogging, and factory farmed slaughtered chicken is somehow is reflective of the Christmas holiday. But then again, this is no different than what the holidays represent elsewhere in the western world—a mindless consumption of materials goods by masses, orchestrated by megacorporations.
The Japanese aren't the only ones that "dig" KFC. If it wasn't for fried chicken, we in the South wouldn't have anything to eat. NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM!
OMG I AM A CANNIBAL!!
you can actually get turkey in japan but most households do not have a "oven" over there...oven cooking is not part of traditional japanese cooking...so, unless they develop a taste for deep frying turkey, then turkey or ham will not be a traditional meal for christmas in japan...
I love KFC's bowls with the mashed potatoes, corn and chicken nugget things in them with a side of green beans. Now that's livin!!
well, i actually saw a small local KFC in Japan with the plastic free standing life size colonel with a santa hat on...and like the lil japanese kid said in japanese..."mom! he looks like a heathier/younger version of santa!"...lol!
I've been to Japan and I have Japanese friends. I even know the language to a decent extent...However, this BLOWS my mind. I had no idea that KFC was as Christmas tradition in Nihon.
Christmas day is at least one day of the year that the Japanese are not eating meat from endangered whales and blue fin tuna, or slurping shark-fin soup, or devouring food products from other citically endangered animal species.
Poor people. Fooled into eating that cr@p for Christmas dinner.
Chicken sure beats turkey any day, turkey is like eating wet card board.
Learn to cook and stop eating paper products, dummy.
It couldn't be the cook, could it?
poor people!? are you to good to eat fried chicken? . poor people, thats funny..fried chicken is so good..if that makes me poor then so be it
I have nothing against fried chicken. Love it, in fact. I meant eating KFC. Trash. Do you like Mexican food? Eating KFC for Christmas would be like eating Taco Bell for Cinco de Mayo.
Given that Cinco de Mayo was a holiday of little importance in Mexico until Americans used it as another excuse to get drunk, Taco Bell actually makes sense. I do get what you're saying, though.
Me too! Me too! LOVE fried chicken!
Love KFC original. Now if they would only go back to frying in beef fat.
That piece of chicken (leg) in the picture sure looks good. Eat mor chikin !
Watch it!!
Tonkatsu?
Think that's cute, google the "Curse of Colonel Sanders" in Japan! Wikipedia has a page on it!
actually popeye's is much better in my opinion, especially the gravy...mmmmmm.
Bojangles!
Oh yea! Its Bo Time!
Gravy, mashed potatoes, chicken, ....wait...um...I want a Bigmac.
Here ya go with a nice big beotch slap as well.
FRUIT CAKE FOR EVER !!!!!!!!
When I was growing up my mother used to make several fruit cakes that were actually eaten. I tried getting my hands on the ones that were soked in rum.
No comparison to the bricks they sell in stores at all.
The recipe or it didn't happen!!
**hopes for alf falls for it as tha chikin would love a yummy fruit cake rezz**
I remember being told that Christmas was a big time for romance in Japan and that giving someone a bucket of chicken was a way of showing love and a good chance to get some "dark sneak love action".
At least they have the common sense to stay the hell away from fruitcake. It's good for no one. KFC is ten times better. :P
Eat more Chicken!
I heard KFC has added a new dinner to the menu. They call it the Nancy Kerrigan. Two small breasts and a battered thigh!
How about the Sarah Palin ? Two small breasts and an empty skull.
duh he funny... nyuk nyuk nyuk
LMAO!!!!!!!!
this joke was better when i heard it 15 year ago
Actually it is the Hillary special, two small breasts, two large thighs, and a left wing! In normal Democrat fashion, the guy standing in line behind you has to pay for your meal.
Thanks Doug. That one just made my day. Merry Chickmas
You, sir, are composed of win. I'm using that one next chance I get.
That joke was what, 20 years old? Still made me laugh though
I was in Okinowa over Christmas one year and a Japanese neighbor gave us KFC for Christmas. Best.Christmas.Present.EVER!
I used to live in Japan. Don't remember this at all.
lol boys are funny. you are probably grownass boys too...
"I ride my bike when I want, where I want. I'm a Growna ss Man."
"Today, it is possibly the closest thing in Japan to a Christmas tradition." Not true. Christmas cake, specifically strawberry shortcake, is more of a tradition than KFC. The funny thing is, no one can tell you why. #researchfail
"No other company had thus influenced the public's Christmas habits since cake-maker Fujiya brought in the “Christmas Cake” in the 1920s. "
Read article = FAIL
I'll take me some dark meat...if yaknowhatimean..
I know exactly what you mean. That's why I'm shacked up with 2 black guys.
both of you are disgusting.
I find it amusing that they left out a mention of the other Christmas tradition: taking your significant other to a "love hotel" for the evening after you've had your Christmas cake and KFC! Interesting innovation on KFC's part to make a two-person set dinner. Sets are very popular at any restaurant, but especially so for special occasions.
The Japanese will find a way to make fried chicken cuter and more efficient. It's, like, what they do!
Pretty cool.
So I walk up this girl and she says "Do you like breasts or legs?"
I said, "Actually, I prefer a nice shaved beaver!"
I'm not allowed in the KFC anymore.
The Church's girls have Bigger breastesses.
I don't know why but I found this joke hilarious. I needed a good laugh.
..and yet my comment is awaiting moderation because I used the word i-d-d-ii0t
And clearly, you've never been laid your entire life. Someone as pathetic as you could only get action on a morgue slab.