
How Colonel Sanders Became Father Christmas in Japan - gscott
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/ts/kfc-christmas-in-japan-colonel-sanders-history-12-23-2014
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patio11
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.

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fragmede
Is
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skx-7TGawx4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skx-7TGawx4)
it?

~~~
rexf
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](http://youtu.be/Skx-7TGawx4?t=15m41s)

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tristanho
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._

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desdiv
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.

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kyriakos
KFC sells mojitos in Cyprus

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Natsu
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...](http://www.coca-colacompany.com/holidays/the-true-history-of-the-
modern-day-santa-claus)

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

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edent
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.

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graupel
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.

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

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

~~~
_asummers
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.

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poglet
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](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.

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nandemo
> 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.

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dilap
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.

~~~
klenwell
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.

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seanmcdirmid
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.

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raverbashing
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

~~~
markburns
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.

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

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breakingcups
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.

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

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andsmi2
Shades of demolition man....

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rasz_pl
Wow. This is pretty depressing.

It sounds like a movie plot from

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

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omegaham
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?

~~~
Natsu
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...](http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/gibberish-asian-font-mystery-
solved.html)

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MrMan
P

