The Philippines — with almost eighty percent of its population belonging to Christian churches of various denominations, shares many Christmas traditions with western countries. This is in stark contrast to Japan — which has a healthy mix of faiths including Buddhist, Shinto, Christian, and many others.

It is amusing to note that Japan has adopted many foreign Christmas traditions, but has instilled them with uniquely Japanese twists. Today we’ll discuss five of the major ones, and how different (or similar!) they are to traditions we ourselves hold dear to our hearts.

Christmas Cake

Compared to New Year’s celebrations where osechi ryouri dishes run several courses long, Christmas in Japan is a much simpler affair involving friends and family sharing a special Christmas cake.

The Christmas cake tradition most probably originated with the French Bûche de Noël, a cake shaped like a log to represent the Yule Log burned at the fireplace during Christmas celebrations. From its original log shape, the cake morphed into the more ubiquitous circle cake, with strawberries being the favored garnish.

Christmas cakes themselves gave rise to more uniquely Japanese quirks: the Christmas cake sale and Christmas cake ladies. After the mad rush for cakes on Christmas Eve, on the 25th of December cake shops get rid of their stock of Christmas cakes by dropping their prices drastically.

The Japanese quickly came to associate this trend to young women trying to get married before the age of twenty five, and then drastically lowering their expectations once they are aged twenty six and over. Of course nowadays, Japanese women are less likely to marry before the age of twenty five, but the cultural in-joke remains in use.

Christmas Chicken

This little Japanese Christmas tradition is an illustrious example of the triumph of advertising.

Years ago, Kentucky Fried Chicken started a campaign that led the Japanese public to believe that fried chicken was the centerpiece of the Christmas feast, instead of roast turkey or baked ham as in traditionally Christian countries. Today, Japanese families celebrate by picking up a bucket of KFC from the nearest store, alongside their Christmas cake and presents.

Even other fast food chains are offering fried chicken buckets just for the season.

I spent Christmas of 2007 in Tokyo on vacation and was surprised to see a chicken special on the Mos Burger menu. My friends and I ordered one, and the staff was equally surprised that we wanted our chicken for dine-in and not take-out. It turns out that the chicken buckets were for the Christmas evening feast, and were not regular dine-in items from their menu ^^;;

Christmas Dates

In other countries (particularly in the West but also becoming increasingly prevalent in the Philippines) Christmas is spent with the family, while New Year is spent with friends at street and home parties. However, the opposite is true in Japan: New Years is spent with the family, while Christmas is spent with your significant other.

I’ve read enough BL shoujo manga to know that this is A. BIG. DEAL. 😀

Girls with boyfriends often make a fuss about where their dates will be taking them on Christmas Eve, while girls without boyfriends are making a fuss about confessing to the boys they like on Christmas Eve. On the other side of the coin, boys with girlfriends are making a fuss about earning enough money to buy the perfect Christmas present, while boys without girlfriends are — well, you pretty much know where this is going.

Christmas Eve is also very big with marriage proposals, so jewelry stores do brisk business all the way up to closing time on 24th December.

Christmas Presents

There are two kinds of Christmas presents: the ones given out of love and the ones given out of obligation (oseibo). Oseibo are usually household goods such as towels and sheets, giant packs of laundry detergent, and fruit baskets given to family acquaintances, co-workers, and colleagues whom you are indebted to in one way or another from the previous year.

The recipients are then obligated to give you a present of equal worth. One rule of thumb the Japanese follow is to identify the department store where the present was purchased based on the gift wrapper, and then purchase a different item from the same store for the original giver.

Real presents on the other hand are given out of genuine fondness, and can range from the very expensive (jewelry or designer goods) to the very affordable (handmade items and home-baked goods are very popular). It is a prevalent trope in anime and J-drama that one (or more) of the female protagonists bake muffins or knit mufflers by hand to give as presents to the objects of their affections.

Year-end Parties

Year-end parties (bounenkai) are celebrated as thanksgiving and to dispel any bad luck accumulated from the previous year. Unlike Philippine office Christmas parties — which are huge affairs featuring dance and singing contests, big raffle prizes, and plenty of booze, Japanese parties are smaller, usually just the team or department getting together for some after-work drinks.

The main difference is that during bounenkai, Japanese employees are encouraged (usually by plying them with plenty of drinks) to let out their frustrations at fellow co-workers, or even their bosses. It is not unusual to hear of employees raging at their section chiefs and department colleagues for their faults or mistakes.

These rages are usually forgotten by both the giver and the recipient the next day, and no professional retaliation is allowed (personally, I don’t see that ever happening in a Philippine setting). This practice is in place to ensure an open exchange of good or ill will between colleagues, and encourage group productivity and team spirit.