Wait, what? Yes, you read that correctly: Christmas and KFC are completely intertwined in Japan. Around December 25, families gather around the table to eat a bucket of fried chicken for the ...

HOKKAIDO, Japan — Almost every year since she was a child, Hokkaido resident Naomi has looked forward to her family's traditional Christmas meal: a KFC "party barrel" brimming with salad ...

Kentucky Fried Chicken has become a massive hit in Japan during the Christmas season, with lines wrapping around the corner and generating enormous sales. Japanese YouTuber Yoko Ishii gave Fox ...

KFC Japan started selling a fried chicken Christmas meal more than 50 years ago YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP via Getty For many people in Japan, KFC is central to their Christmas celebrations. Every year ...

Four years after its inception, KFC launched its first Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii, or "Kentucky for Christmas" marketing campaign created by Takeshi Okawara, the manager of Japan's first KFC ...

Christmas celebrations in the United States often feature turkey, ham, or both as the star protein(s) in a homemade family feast. However, holiday revelers in Japan customarily enjoy a far ...

When you think of Japanese food, you likely think of sushi, ramen, maybe even delicious karaage, but this fast food joint ...

Since World War II, Japan has embraced the typically Western holiday and made it its own. There's Santa, trees, and presents, but on the Christmas lunch table is KFC. Over the last half decade ...

(Source: Polishfoodies.com.) In 1970, Takeshi Okawara—manager of the first KFC restaurant in Japan—began promoting fried chicken "party barrels" as a Christmas meal intended to serve as a ...

Quirky seasonal customs take place in people's homes across the country, while city squares host elaborate Christmas displays. Fried chicken was marketed by KFC Japan as the perfect Christmas food ...

While elsewhere around the world, Christmas dinner usually means a fat roast turkey or a nice holiday ham, in Japan it’s all about the Colonel. When the first KFC opened in Japan in 1970 ...

Naomi, who asked only to be identified by her first name, and her family are far from the only Japanese residents who enjoy KFC for Christmas dinner. Every year since the mid-1980s, life-size ...