But even though Japan doesn’t have Thanksgiving the same way we understand it in the US, Japan still has a Thanksgiving holiday right around the same time. It’s called 勤労感謝の日, or Labor Thanksgiving Day, and it’s a national holiday.

It has the same roots as Thanksgiving here in the US – it was once a fall harvest festival, but has since changed in meaning. Nowadays, Labor Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrating workers in Japan.

How can you compare American Thanksgiving Day and Japanese Labor Thanksgiving Day? What’s the same and what’s different? Let’s take a look:

How is Japanese Thanksgiving the Same?

Being Thankful

Both American and Japanese Thanksgiving days both, obviously, focus on giving thanks. In America, it’s more about giving thanks in an abstract sense – giving thanks for the things that have happened to you, the people in your life, etc. – but in Japan, it’s a lot more specific.

In Japan, Labor Thanksgiving Day is about being thankful for workers who do their job and do it well. Sometimes you literally thank those people — school kids sometimes make thank you cards and gifts for municipal workers like police, firefighters, and hospital workers.

National Holiday

In both countries, Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday. In the US, the president “pardons” a turkey, there’s a huge parade in New York City, a lot of businesses are closed, and government services are mostly shut down.

In Japan, it’s not quite as festive, but still very much a national holiday. Most businesses are still open on Labor Thanksgiving Day, but government services are closed down. There are little celebrations all over the country, but none with the spectacle of the celebrations in the US.

How is Japanese Thanksgiving Different?

No Turkey

Sorry Japanese people, but you don’t get enormous, heart-attack inducing feasts the way us Americans do. On the plus side, turkeys needn’t fear the annual genocide they face here in the US.

Political Holiday

While you might get into some heated conversations with your relatives during Thanksgiving in the US (will somebody tell my uncle that the election is over?!), it’s generally a pretty apolitical holiday. It’s pretty hard to politicize big meals and families getting together.

Now Labor Thanksgiving Day isn’t an explicitly political holiday, but it definitely has political implications. Labor organizations across the country take the opportunity to have a conversation about the accomplishments of the labor movement, workers’ rights, etc..

So whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving Day in the US or Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan, have a good holiday!

In Japan, You Eat Chicken On Christmas

Ask almost any Japanese person (and I have asked many) why they eat KFC on Christmas. Almost every one of them will answer “isn’t that what you do?” (or, at the very least, they’ll ask “you don’t eat chicken, too?”). Apparently, over the years the colonel has been tricking Japanese people into thinking that the rest of the world does Christmas with KFC, so obviously the cool thing to do is follow suit.

Of course (unless I’m missing something here) a KFC Christmas almost anywhere else would be quite a sad affair. Even eating chicken on Christmas seems a bit weird to me, though I’m sure there are some who roast a chicken instead of a goose, or turkey, or ham, or whatever it is people normally make.

How Did This Happen?

Well, first of all, the meaning of Christmas is pretty lost in Japan. It’s almost entirely a commercial holiday (did I say almost? I meant completely). We have made up 100% commercial holidays too, though I gotta say, Japan knocks us out of the water in this category. Christmas in Japan essentially feels like a “how much can you spend on your girlfriend today?” kind of holiday. There’s a lot of pressure to buy expensive gifts (even rankings on TV showing what gifts are the best, with a very heavy focus on price), spend money on hotels, and really just spend a lot of money in between, too.

With all this focus on the commercial, it was probably super easy for KFC to slip in and take the show. All it took, I’m sure, was a few years of advertising campaigns around Christmas. I mean, c’mon, who can possibly resist Japanese commercials? I know I can’t.

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Oh, and did I mention that Colonel Sanders kind of looks like Santa? He totally does.

Other Weird Japanese Christmas “Traditions”

KFC isn’t the only thing that makes Christmas in Japan unique. There are plenty of other things that could be considered “weird,” and we wrote about a good number of them a couple of years ago right here on Tofugu. But, just to make things simple, here’s a list of weird things, along with a few new ones.

• Along with their chicken, a lot of people eat “Christmas Cake,” also because “Americans do it.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure people don’t eat Christmas Cake (though I guess it makes sense, after all, we are supposedly celebrating a birthday, right?).
• A lot of Japanese people get it right (and know that Christmas is to celebrate Jesus’ birthday)… but there are a good number of people who think it’s to celebrate Santa’s birthday too. I’d give it a 60% Jesus, 20% don’t know, and 20% Santa’s birthday ratio, from the asking I’ve done.
• Christmas Eve is lovey-lovey date night. It’s kind of like Valentines in a way. Guys are supposed to spend uber amounts of money on girls, and possibly rent a hotel, because that’s what guys do. Expect to see lots of TV focusing on expensive things to buy and expensive hotel rooms to rent around this time.
• Christmas Eve is a night of miracles. Thank TV for this. Usually these miracles are romance related, though.
• Although this has changed much, and the “age at which women should get married” has also become less “strict,” unmarried girls who are older than 25 (because the 25th is Christmas) are called “Christmas Cakes,” because in order to sell a Christmas Cake after Christmas, they have to be put at big discounts (i.e., you’re supposed to get married before hitting 25). Like I said, this is and has changed quite a bit.

Merry Christmas From Tofugu, Too!

Oh, and Merry Christmas to everyone out there, too! Hope you have a great holiday, no matter what you celebrate (or don’t celebrate). Festivus for the Restivus?

Merry Christmas! Go do something nice for someone.

Apparently, somewhere in Nagoya, 外人さん (Mr. Foreigner) “costumes” consisting only of a nose and a pair of eyes are being sold. Not the most politically incorrect costume I’ve ever seen, but I thought it might be good for a chuckle (hopefully). Which makes me wonder, what do you perceive as the attitude Japanese people have toward foreigners? Here’s a little blurb from Wikipedia (the source of nearly all hastily gotten knowledge):

By global standards, Japan is highly homogenous ethnically. Thus, there are some issues which many non-Japanese find insensitive. The debate over these issues parallel the debate over political correctness in the West.

Anyway, you guys, have a good night, whatever you may be doing. We (the Tofugu team) probably won’t be doing much in the way of tricking or treating, so maybe we’ll finish up those other articles we’ve got waiting in the wings.

Source: merefflorescence

** 11/2 Edit: It’s not that Japanese don’t like foreigners. In my opinion, I would say that (generally speaking, of course) they merely find non-Japanese people to be intrinsically different from them. Not that foreigners aren’t human or anything, they’re just different. I think, perhaps, that it has something to do with the idea of uchi (内 or “inside”) and soto (外 or “outside”), too. Maybe we’ll explain this concept further in a different article, if anyone’s interested. Also, I feel that Japanese have a better sense of racial humor in general. They’re not too sensitive about that kind of thing. **