As many of us are counting down the days to Christmas, putting up trees, wrapping presents and preparing eggnog. If you were Japanese and happened to be part of the 1% that celebrate Christmas, you would be placing your order with KFC, so that you don’t have to stand in a queue on Christmas day. Yes, you heard me correctly, even though Christmas is not really celebrated in Japan, 3.6 Million Japanese will do so with a special Kentucky Fried Chicken meal.
Albeit that that the first KFC opened in Japan in 1970, it wasn’t until 1974 that the brand ran a hugely successful Christmas campaign “Kentucky for Christmas” (Kusisumasu ni wa kentakki), that would make the brand a household name. So much so that there are now 1131 KFC outlets in Japan, so don’t be surprised to see Colonel Saunders dressed as Santa promoting his Christmas bucket tradition, a tradition that has generated, according to figures in 2018, a whopping 6.9 Billion Yen (U$ 63 Million) over the the Christmas period….now that is Ho Ho Ho!
