Christmas in Japan

Christmas in Japan is not exactly what I’d expect given that the country is 84-96% Shinto/Buddhist and only about 1% Christian. (These figures were obtained from Wikipedia, of course.) Having already spent one Christmas in a non-Christian country (the Gambia), I figured that Christmas would pass unnoticed by mainstream Japanese culture. What a surprise when we started seeing Christmas decorations in early November such as the giant lit signs that said, “Merry Christmas” (in English nonetheless) at Kyoto Station (the huge central rail station).

After that we began to see Christmas decorations and hear carols (identical to those in the West) in major shopping malls and stores. Some packaged products even had snowmen and Santa and even the grocery stores had sections with Western sweets and goodies labeled “Merry Christmas” (in English). Now, was this for the benefit of the foreign residents of Kyoto? Absolutely not! It turns out that the Japanese do (sort of) celebrate Christmas…

Apparently Santa does stop in Japan on Christmas Eve to bring presents for children and, oddly enough, he is often depicted in pictures as coming down a chimney even though no one has a chimney here. Also on Christmas Eve, families eat Christmas cake, which has been purchased in a department store or bakery. The Christmas cakes are lovely affairs, with little signs that say (in English) “Merry Christmas”. The one we had even came with a tiny device that played Christmas carols. Just before Christmas, Jim and I were in a department store with a colleague from Jim’s lab, Sunnichi, and his girlfriend, Eumi. In noticing the bustle in the Christmas cake area, I remarked to Eumi that we didn’t have Christmas cakes in the US. The look of utter shock on her face was amusing since I’m sure the tradition assumes its roots in Western culture. I tried to explain about fruit cake, but describing a cake that few seem to like but everyone still buys seems enigmatic even to me.

As for decorations, we have seen a profusion of decorations from tree figurines to larger artificial Christmas trees. Of course, with the Japanese flair for style and cuteness, in addition to traditional green trees one can find hot pink trees with bows and sparkles. We were amused by the large variety of Santa costumes available in one home store. Most of them were “sexy Santa” female costumes…like Halloween met Christmas in Japan. Hmmm. Thanks to the abundance of Christmas decorations available, I have a gel gem set on our window that is a Santa sleigh with five reindeer (wearing red scarves) and surrounded by snowflakes. Cuteness!! Although house holiday decorations are nothing comparable to the US, I have seen a few houses with outdoor Christmas lights, stars and Santas. And, I couldn’t neglect to mention the life-size Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa outfit in front of KFC stores. :)

[Sidenote: Apparently KFC has done well with marketing and has managed to convince many folks here that fried chicken is “the food” of Christmas in the West—never mind about turkey, ham or duck. We actually did eat KFC at one of our Christmas parties and I have to admit that it was delicious! I believe it (along with McDonald’s) is reputed to be much better here. What that says about the standards of American consumers I’ll leave you to ponder.]

To me, the oddest part about Christmas in Japan is that, as Eiya, the postdoc in Jim’s lab said, “Christmas is for lovers.” Since Eiya spent several years in the US, she has a grasp of what our holidays are like, and she explained to us that it seems Japan and the West have switched the practices of Christmas and New Years. While in the West, Christmas is family time and New Years is for dates, parties and friends, in Japan, Christmas is a special date night while New Years is strictly family time. Indeed, in reading a little about Japanese Christmas online, I found that Christmas is somewhat similar to Valentine’s Day. Sweethearts give each other presents and there are decorations everywhere. However, people still go to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and businesses are open as usual. Ironically, Dec 23 is a holiday in Japan because it is the present emperor’s birthday. So, Jim didn’t go to work on the 23rd, but did work on the 24th and 25th! What an alter universe we are in!