Japan Is Obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas (2012) | Hacker News Reader

Japan Is Obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas (2012)

smithsonianmag.com

43 pointscoloneltcb47 comments

Japan is the master of Capitalism driven consumerization of Western holidays. Christmas is one (Cake + KFC), Valentines day (chocolate) is another. They invented "White Day" for 3/14 for men who receive Valentines day chocolates to give gifts to women in return (often quoted as being 3x the price of the chocolate received).

In recent times, they've succeeded in making Halloween a commercial "get out and buy costumes and party" bonanza (well I guess this is similar to what we have in the states).

Now, if only they could harness some of this prowess into international marketing... ;)

Yet I don't think Japan has "black friday" the ultimate consumerism "holiday".

The UK got it first and people are already rejecting it apparently.

They now have Cyber Monday on Amazon though!

Also there is a New Years Sale tradition that is very similar to Black Friday with the mad rushes for bargain items, fights for items (often women for clothing), "good luck bags" which is basically a lottery for trying to get lucky with the jackpot items, etc.

I love how traditions get skewed as they pass through multi-national/-cultural lenses. I live in China, and any time I go into a 7-11 around this time of year they shout at me about "Christmas cakes". After a few half-hearted explanations on my part about how Christmas doesn't really involve cake (explaining pudding is just way beyond the pale), I finally figured out that the Chinese 7-11s are all run by a Japanese company (which explains why they're efficient and not depressing), and that the Japanese have decided that "Christmas cake" is a thing. And so, the Chinese have followed suit. You have to hand it to the Japanese -- they may transform your traditions into something unrecognizable, but they do it so thoroughly that you often start to suspect your own memory...

It appears Christmas cakes are not just a thing in Japan and China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cake - and then there's some other delicious cake-like things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen

Pudding however, now THAT is a weird Christmas tradition :)

Wow, from the Wikipedia link:

"Christmas cakes of this style were originally released by Fujiya, and was popularized when they began sales at Ginza, the central commercial district in Tokyo. This was during the time when Japan was going through massive waves of Westernization, particularly by the upper elite class. Members of the upper class, who had a strong penchant for Western cultures in general, enjoyed Western style desserts as a delicacy. Thus, being a Western style dessert, Christmas cakes were associated with the idea of Western modernity and social status. Therefore, it was a major hit when the Christmas cakes were commercialized and became more affordable to the general public. As Christmas in Japan developed as a full-fledged commercial event, competition among confectionery stores got intense. Different shapes and styles of Christmas cakes are released across the countless numbers of confectionery stores in the country; the cakes are no longer tied down to the traditional form of round white cakes with strawberries and Santa Claus on top. The Christmas cakes today are symbolized as a ritual of Christmas celebration; specifically, the act of sharing the cake with family or friends."

An excellent explanation of what's going on! I knew about fruitcake for Christmas, but these are totally different.

My mother has always served a Christ Baby Birthday Cake (coffee cake, with coffee and hot chocolate) for breakfast on Christmas morning. I think that's just a family tradition, but it is a lovely start to the day.

Christmas pudding means a kind of very rich soft cake you pour brandy over and set on fire for effect.

US pudding is called custard in the UK.

Now you'll be amazed what they think pants are.

Christmas cake is a thing here in the UK too, I think it just depends on the family :P

7-Eleven varies by province in China.

In Shanghai it's actually run by the Taiwan operator which is definitely more like the Japanese style of 7-Eleven.

Hong Kong is run by Dairy Farm (owned by Jardine) and the 7-Elevens in Shenzhen and Guangzhou are organised very similarly (I can't find a source to say it is Jardine, but the style is the same)

7-Eleven as a whole has been majority owned by the Japanese operator since the 90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven#History

well in the UK Christmas cakes are a thing.

They're basically a very rich fruit cake with icing.

Honestly didn't know they weren't things in other counties. I think most common wealth countries they're a thing to.

I'd assume Christmas Cake is just a cake eaten during Xmas. I didn't know it had to be a special type of cake.

Don't you have Xmas cake in the US?

Do you have wedding cake? I.e. a heavy fruit cake which has been soaked in port/sherry/rum/whisky and then decorated with marzipan and royal icing?

Xmas cake is the same thing.

It's part of the English (i.e. British) tradition, and probably spread to the colonies and trading partners. Which would explain it being known in China.

We also have Xmas Pudding, which is a similar fruity better but it's steamed and served with the thickest cream you can find (which in my youth was clotted cream).

Christmas Cake in Japan is entirely different from what the British call it. In Japan it's a double layer chiffon sponge filled with strawberries and cream, with additional strawberries and cream on top.

Guess, you mean Japanese Strawberry Shortcakes?

We do not have Christmas Cake in the US as far as I've ever seen. Even 'fruit cake' which exists solely around Christmas has been the butt of jokes for at least 30 years so very few people actually buy/eat them and they don't usually have anything (booze, frosting) going on with them.

Wow, always figured it was the same everywhere. Here in France we have "buche de noel" which means "log of Christmas" because it's a cake shaped like a log.

We do have 'yule logs' which wikipedia tells me are broadly the same cake (chocolate sponge cake rolled up around frosting) but I don't know that it's really all that common.

US Christmas is stereotypically endless cookies, with gingerbread and cinnamon rolls coming in strong. In general though I think the culinary traditions aren't really unified enough to be worth talking about.

Except for eggnog!

I totally forgot I learned about buche de noel in French class about 20 years ago. Thanks for the flashback.

I find the thought that we have a lot of seasonal cakes amusing. You can find "Galette des rois" around january only, "bugnes" around march I think, "papillotes" and "buches" for Christmas...

Interesting, in France we eat that cake on Xmas :

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=christmas+cake&source=lnms...

I don't where that comes from, obviously it's in the shape of a firewood, I wonder if other countries follow the same tradition.

We have Yule Logs in the UK, because some people dislike the other Christmas cake.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&q=yule+log

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log

Thanks, so apparently it comes from Germany, I thought only people in french speaking countries were eating that kind of cake.

We have those in the US too, but we don't call them 'Christmas cake'.

Americans would think of something completely different if you mentioned "wedding cake". A stereotypical one would be:

http://uwebus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/small-wedding-c...

Yes, that is right. Xmas cake is the fruit cake often found inside the wedding cake.

U.S. wedding cakes do not have fruitcake inside them.

They're just called fruitcake in the US. The tradition goes:

Anyone who has never taken a taste of one before, takes a taste, then throw the cake out, and never try eating one again.

If a cake has lasted the year without anyone taking a bite of it, you re-gift it.

Christmas Cakes are (were) a thing in Australia. We'd always get one from our grandparents, stuffed with money. Biting down on a bit of cake and cracking a tooth on a .50c is a real tradition, yo! At least in our family it was .. :)

> After a few half-hearted explanations on my part about how Christmas doesn't really involve cake

[...]

> they may transform your traditions into something unrecognizable

This "Christmas" thing really took off. You must be proud.

In Japan Christmas is more like valentines than actual Christmas though. It's for couples to go out and hotels are all booked o_O

The cake is so you have something to cry into at home if you're single.

> After a few half-hearted explanations on my part about how Christmas doesn't really involve cake

Hang on...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=christmas+cake&source=lnms...

You'd have been better off saying that Christmas doesn't really involve Santa Claus:

https://jakubmarian.com/christmas-gift-bringers-of-europe/

It apparently has real detrimental effects for people with birthdays around that time of year since many bakeries will exclusively make Christmas Cake and refuse to make any other kind of cake, including birthday cake.

I have to admit, the Yule Log and the fruitcake are so distinct in my mind from the whipped-creamy thing they sell at 7-11, I didn't even really connect the two.

Christmas Cake is a British + Colonies thing (- the US it seems). So you should suspect your memory, because the Chinese/Japanese seem to remember better ;)

Did you really need to make the Chinese are depressing not efficient racial slur?

> Christmas Cake is a British + Colonies thing (- the US it seems)

Seems so, yes. "christmas cake" is common in India too. For example,

"For sweet, the Anglo Indian household enjoys Christmas cake and plum pudding, perfumed with brandy, nutmeg and other spices." http://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/the-indian-christmas-table-...

The 7-11 slur was an anti-American slur. American 7-11s are depressing and inefficient. The slurpee... oh God.

Italian panetone and Pandoro (and if anyone knows about good and reliable recipe for the later, I will be forever grateful) are Christmas cakes.

And Sweden is with Donald Duck.

http://www.npr.org/2014/12/24/372940340/how-donald-duck-help...

The Swedes have a Christmas sausage , called Korv ( potatoe sausage ). .really good ! I had an Italian butcher make it for me on Christmas . . he asked me if he could copy the recipe . . I obliged , later in the summer I went in and he was selling ' Korv ' , I told him the Swedes usually only eat ' Korv ' at Christmas , he said they ( customer's ) love it !

You do know that "korv" is simply the Swedish word for "sausage" right?

What you had was probably "Potatiskorv" or "Potato Sausage": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potatiskorv

I work for a Japanese tech company, and I can't tell you how often I've been fed KFC or Christmas cake at the year-end gathering of my various social circles. The Western media exaggerates almost all of its news about Japan, but this is a case where the obsession is real.

Aren't all holiday traditions rather arbitrary? I live in Japan and considered some things odd at first, but usually they are just different but equally valid ways to do things.

This short TED talk from Derek Sivers illustrates it nicely https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_differe...

Search YouTube with keywords like "KFC クリスマス" and you'll see a whole bunch of Japanese KFC commercials for Christmas.

One of the points that stuck out to me the most was the exchange rate and how it's changed:

> Today the christmas chicken dinner (which now boasts cake and champagne) goes for about 3,336 yen ($40).

Nowadays, 3336 JPY is only around $28 USD. Quite a change for three short years. We feel it here, too.

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