Christmas in Japan!

If you know a little about Japan, you might know that the most common religions in this country are Shinto and Buddhism. If you know a bit more, you might know that more than 70% of people in Japan are not religious at all, really. At any rate, the percentage of the population who are Christian is something like 1 to 2%.

Some signs even look fairly permanent.

So why, you might wonder, am I posting about Christmas here? The answer is quite simple: Christmas is relatively popular in Japan. Complete with signs, lights, fake trees and Christmas carols in the stores replacing the usual store theme songs (yes, some stores here have theme songs) all wishing passers by a Merry Christmas in one way or another.

Obviously, the religious aspects are not popular and people do not get the day off work, but the part where people are encouraged to buy things for each other is very popular. Especially with the stores who want to sell more things.

Because everyone loves capitalism!

Even Kentucky Fried Chicken has gotten into the Christmas spirit, or rather, it has been in the Christmas spirit since I arrived at the beginning of November. While KFC is pretty omnipresent in Japan generally (Japan is its the third largest market after the US and China), the company has also convinced Japan that fried chicken is a Christmas food, so they start promoting special Christmas meals early (because they have to be ordered in advance) and dress the Colonel in a Santa suit and hat.

Colonel Santa brings you tidings of fried chicken!

It seems that Christmas has also become a romantic day, which is a more recent, but still interesting trend. It's a bit odd that Christmas has become a romantic holiday since Valentine's day (where women give men chocolates) and White Day (where the men give gifts to the women who gave them chocolate) exist here as well. It almost seems like Japan is making a point of being rough on single people.