Christmas with Kentucky

Hang on to your hats, because we are about to get weird. Even though only an estimated one percent of the population in Japan is Catholic, Christmas is a huge holiday to the Japanese. Sort of like Halloween in America, you won't get the day of from work, but you look forward to it anyway.

The first KFC opened in Japan back in 1970 and it seems like a visiting foreign family spent the Christmas holidays in Japan and since turkey is non-existent here, the family opted for fried chicken instead. Well, needless to say, KFC saw this as a huge opportunity and during the Christmas season on 1974 launched the "Christmas with Kentucky" campaign which included chicken and wine!

Every year since then, KFC is mobbed every Christmas, some people waiting hours in line for their holiday dinner, the company even accepts pre-orders months in advance. The demand is SO huge that back office workers, executives and even the CEO head out to the restaurants in order to help out! Could you imagine the CEO of McDonald's ever setting foot inside one of their restaurants, much less actually taking a customers order?

Today the Christmas menu at KFC includes a bucket of chicken, a Christmas cake (another huge tradition in Japan) and a bottle of champagne!  Wait. Alcohol at KFC? Let's just say that there are KFC restaurants in Tokyo with their own whisky bars and just leave it at that.

Why am I posting about Christmas in the middle of the summer?  Because now is the time where people are placing their reservations for fried chicken.