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How Colonel Sanders Became Father Christmas in Japan
- poglet 12y agoI 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.
- oldspiceman 12y agoI love that. Same thing happens in most European countries.
- nandemo 12y ago> 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.
- dghughes 12y agoIf they had stuffing on the menu it would be a pretty good substitute for a Christmas dinner.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tristanho 12y agoProbably 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.
- desdiv 12y agoI'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.
- kyriakos 12y agoKFC sells mojitos in Cyprus
- ics 12y agoThey sometimes have bourbon too. This might be fun to look at: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/04/26/kfc-japan-serves-chicken-and-whiskey-at-new-route-25-bar/ http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/04/26/kfc-japan-serves-chick...
- drak0n1c 12y agoMcDonalds 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.
- rab_oof 12y agoIn 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.
- gambiting 12y agoYep, 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.
- dilap 12y agoFun 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.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- bduerst 12y agoMost of SE Asia is in love with KFC. In Shanghai they're everywhere.
- klenwell 12y agoI 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.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoEscargot 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.
- cageface 12y agoI 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.
- edent 12y agoThere'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.
- graupel 12y agoEh, 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.
- xasos 12y agoAs a Chicago native, Lou Malnati's is a Chicago classic - and pretty much every one I know here has grown up on it.
- jforman 12y agoUh, so false. Malnatis is such a beautiful thing.
- joezydeco 12y agoIt is, but the delivery guys careening around the city aren't carrying deep dish pizzas. It's all thin crust, pub cut please.
- rasz_pl 12y agoWow. 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)
- omegaham 12y agoI 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 12y agoIn 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-font-mystery-solved.html http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/gibberish-asian-fon...
- MrMan 12y agoP
- Natsu 12y agoThere'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-modern-day-santa-claus http://www.coca-colacompany.com/holidays/the-true-history-of...
- jamestnz 12y agoThe 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
- bob917 12y agoKFC gave me terrible diarrhea the last time I visited one of their fine establishments. I'd love to try KFC in Japan and learn if the Colonel is more cordial towards my bowels in that region of the world.
- raverbashing 12y agoI 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 12y agoIt'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.
- raverbashing 12y agoAh that's the busiest day of the year for them and things in a similar vein I can believe
- patio11 12y agoFor 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.
- fragmede 12y agoIs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skx-7TGawx4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skx-7TGawx4 it?
- rexf 12y agoNice 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
- andsmi2 12y agoShades of demolition man....
- breakingcups 12y agoYou 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.