How Colonel Sanders Became Father Christmas in Japan | Hacker News Reader

How Colonel Sanders Became Father Christmas in Japan

talkingpointsmemo.com

161 pointsgscott49 comments

For more on this topic, see The Colonel Comes to Japan, a 30 minute video with a fairly scholarly treatment of KFC's expansion to Japan in the 1970s. It is part academic study and part compulsively watchable television.

The single best anecdote among many is how the statute of the Colonel, which is outside every KFC in Japan, came to become associated with the brand here. Apparently when the guy in charge of KFC Japan was put in charge of the unit, HQ didn't really think a poor Asian country merited any marketing support, but they let him use anything they had in storage. Somebody had produced several hundred Colonel statues but they were deemed too ridiculous to use. "So I said 'I'll take all of them.'" "And did you know they would be a hit with Japanese people?" "No clue, but something is better than nothing."

(Also worth mentioning: the guy's right hand man, who was Japanese, gets into an argument with him over whether selling KFC as "aristocratic American elegance" to Japanese people is exploitative, since, quote the American executive, "We sell fried chicken to poor people." "Maybe you do over there, but we won't over here." Topics in the discussion included cultural appropriation, memories of the war and associated famines, and the desire of an emerging economic superpower to consume things associated with wealth, like meat.)

The easiest way to find the video is probably your local library or university library, as it was made in the early 1980s.

Is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skx-7TGawx4 it?

Nice video find!

Interesting, when Mitsubishi got into the Chicken feed & farm business, they brought KFC to Japan as a complimentary business [1]

[1] http://youtu.be/Skx-7TGawx4?t=15m41s

Probably the most shocking/interesting line from the article in my opinion:

The first Kentucky Christmas meal sold for a pricey $10 (almost $48 in 2014 money) and contained fried chicken and wine; now, KFC’s Japanese Christmas meals cost about $40 and come with champagne and cake.

I'm given to understand that many fast food chains serve alcohol in Europe. McDonald's, for example, sells beer in Germany and both beer and wine in France.

KFC sells mojitos in Cyprus

They sometimes have bourbon too. This might be fun to look at: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/04/26/kfc-japan-serves-chick...

McDonalds is hip shiny and clean in Japan. For young people it's not unusual to go to McDonalds for a date, or to study.

KFC is even classier than McDonalds in Tokyo.

In China, KFC used to require reservations. (!!)

Pretty hilarious.

In the US, McDs is a house of horrors. Look at the Palo Alto location: bathroom from hell even the devil wouldn't use, terribly underpaid/unmotivated staff and worse decor.

Yep, US McDonalds are the worst I have ever seen. Pretty much everywhere in EU they are clean and tidy, maybe except UK, with theirs bearing the closest resemblance to US ones. But the ones in Germany, France or Poland are as clean as any proper restaurant.

I was in a smaller city in Spain on a Sunday, late night, and the local BK was jam-packed with teens. More than I've ever seen at any fast-food joint in my life. I must admit, though, since I've accompanied some friends in W. Europe as they eat there, they are cleaner and the staff, more motivated (than in the US).

Maybe(and this is just a guess) it is because even the staff at McDonalds that is working at the worst possible positions knows that they don't need to collect food stamps to survive, that whatever happens they have 21+ days of paid holidays per year and unlimited sick leave with free healthcare. I mean, the pay might be shit, but at least you are not worrying about what will happen if you get sick.

How long ago did you see the UK ones? ~5 years ago, the style of them was overhauled. Now, they're really actually pretty nice. They sell some really decent quality food.

A regular coffee at starbucks in japan costs $4. And every starbucks is packed to the brim with people. Same in Korea.

That's cheaper than in the US. ;)

There's precedent for this in America, where Coca Cola's representation of St. Nicholas did something similar.

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/holidays/the-true-history-of...

The coca-cola company sure does like to claim this! Snopes has an interesting analysis http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp

There's all sorts of weird cross-cultural exports in the world. I remember driving through the USA and seeing Clive Owen advertising "Three Olives London Vodka" - a brand I'd never heard of despite living close to London my entire life.

Similarly, I suspect the "Chicago Town Pizza" I see being advertised over here as a real slice of American life, would make a true Chicagoan weep.

Eh, as a Chicago resident, we just eat the same normal thin pizza the rest of the world does - the deep dish stuff is only for the tourists.

Uh, so false. Malnatis is such a beautiful thing.

It is, but the delivery guys careening around the city aren't carrying deep dish pizzas. It's all thin crust, pub cut please.

Art of Pizza delivers. It's certainly a special-ish occasion to get deep dish, but it's definitely something people get decently often as a whole.

Nope, nope nope

The reason is that it seems the deep dish doesn't travel too well -- we get it delivered at work periodically, and the crust ends up getting a bit soggy. Also, although the deep dish may be a signature item for many pizza places, their "special" is almost always a cheese, sausage, mushroom, onion, and green pepper thin crust.

What you said is not only false, but would be fighting words for many people I met in my 8+ years in Chicago. Arguments about which deep-dish pizza is best can reach a fervor usually reserved for religious or political arguments.

As a Chicago native, Lou Malnati's is a Chicago classic - and pretty much every one I know here has grown up on it.

Born and raised and lifelong devourer of Chicago deep-dish with the waistline to prove it. You are the tourist.

I wonder if this is a matter of where one is from in Chicagoland. I've definitely heard this from other natives but have also heard people screaming that this is heresy (as we've seen in this thread).

I'm not from there, but I'm happy to have either :)

The neighborhood probably does make a difference just because that's where certain pizza joints are located (or where their original location started). Some people are extremely loyal to their favorite spot but most, like myself, are happy to have the huge variety of pizza that we have in Chicago.

As I understand it, if there's a thing that'll bring most Chicagoans to tears, it's seeing what the rest of the country calls a hot dog.

Yup. Our hot dogs are pretty different (onions, dill pickle, tomato, relish, and mustard). And don't even think about putting ketchup on it!

I took a 1 minute video showing my local KFC in comparison to the next door McDonalds. Sorry about the video quality.

I came back later that night and there was a sign outside indicating that I needed to have a phone order (maybe) to get in the queue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfCcO9dh2g0

KFC has made fried chicken popular on Christmas in Japan, but now you can get fried chicken everywhere, including the seven-eleven and Family Mart stores that have Christmas packages.

Someone mentioned alcohol at fast food chains. It's only at special unique fast food restaurants. Drinking in Japan is strange, for example if I live a club with a class of alcohol in my hand, the door person will pour it into a plastic cup for me to drink out on the streets.

I love that. Same thing happens in most European countries.

> Someone mentioned alcohol at fast food chains. It's only at special unique fast food restaurants.

I don't know about that. Heineken is part of Burger King's menu. Granted, BK isn't nearly as popular as KFC or McDonald's.

Fun article.

KFC is also really popular in Vietnam, which I was surprised to discover when I visited about 10 years ago. I think the uncanny resemblance of Colonel Sanders to Ho Chi Minh might have something to do with it.

Most of SE Asia is in love with KFC. In Shanghai they're everywhere.

I heard a story on the radio years ago (Marketplace, IIRC) that pointed out that American fast food chains were popular in parts of Asia because of their cleanliness and relative high standards.

Still didn't prepare me to discover, while in China a short time later, that Pizza Hut aspires to fine dining and even offered escargot on the menu.

Escargot isn't exactly fine dining in china, you can find them at any low end night snack place in the summer.

Pizza hut isn't very high end, maybe midrange in sophisticated cities like BJ and SH.

I think it's more that KFC appeals more to the Asian palate for whatever reason. Here in Vietnam they love KFC but most people don't like hamburgers.

I don't really believe most of articles like this

I think most details are lost in translation, or the level of seriousness of things ("Is Mall Santa the real Santa?"/"Do Santa Actually exist?") coupled with a certain American exaggerated feelings of self-importance and self-centeredness

Or, as someone told me, a kid was told "this is not the USA, we don't celebrate Halloween!". This was in Ireland

It's not that far off. It is the busiest day of the year for them and the company president or CEO, (not sure which) chips in to make the food.

However, whilst it does happen, I've seen KFCs without snaking lines.

Ah that's the busiest day of the year for them and things in a similar vein I can believe

You know, I think only 10% of the article goes into why Sanders image and KFC food became so popular in Japan, and I still don't feel satisfied with the outcome. I don't feel like I now know why he is so popular.

If they had stuffing on the menu it would be a pretty good substitute for a Christmas dinner.

Shades of demolition man....

Wow. This is pretty depressing.

It sounds like a movie plot from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branded_(2012_film)

I wouldn't call it depressing at all. It's just fascinating how a different culture will take off with something that we consider to be completely mundane.

How many Americans get Chinese phrases tattooed on them because it looks cool?

In that vein, some of those are decipherable, even though they're gibberish in Chinese. There's a handy chart with the bogus Chinese "alphabet" many of them are using here:

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/gibberish-asian-fon...

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