Kurisumasu (クリスマス), Christmas in Japan, is a secular, commercial celebration rather than a religious or public holiday, and December 25 is an ordinary working day. Japanese Christmas traditions centre on Christmas Eve: a night for couples, a bucket of fried chicken, a strawberry shortcake and streets strung with lights. Only around 1% of the population is Christian.
Is Christmas a Holiday in Japan?
No. Japan has sixteen national holidays, and the Cabinet Office’s list does not include December 24 or 25. Offices, shops and banks keep their normal hours, and in 2026 Christmas Day falls on an ordinary Friday.
For a while there was a near miss. Until 2018, December 23 was a national holiday, the birthday of the Heisei Emperor, which gave many people a day off on the eve of Christmas Eve. When the Reiwa era began in 2019 the Emperor’s Birthday moved with the throne, and since 2020 it has fallen on February 23. December 23 went back to being an ordinary working day.
What Japan does have is a century and a half of Christmas as imported style. According to Nippon.com, the Yokohama shop of the high-end food store Meidi-ya is considered to have put up Japan’s first Christmas tree in 1886, and the displays at its Ginza store, opened in 1900, prompted the neighbouring department stores to follow its lead. Christmas arrived through shop windows, and it has lived there ever since.
Here is how the season runs in the coming year.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| November | Illuminations switch on, and KFC and Christmas cake reservations open |
| Wednesday, Dec 23, 2026 | KFC pickup slots begin |
| Thursday, Dec 24 | Christmas Eve: couples’ dinners, chicken and cake at home, Santa overnight |
| Friday, Dec 25 | An ordinary working day. Leftover cakes are marked down |
| Saturday, Dec 26 | Christmas decorations come down and the New Year ones go up |
What Japanese Christmas leaves out
Knowing what is missing explains the rest.
- Church. With around 1% of Japanese people identifying as Christian, midnight Mass is something a small minority attends. For almost everyone else Christmas carries no religious content at all.
- The family feast. There is no roast, no extended family around one table, no long lunch on the 25th. The big family holiday in Japan is a week later: Oshōgatsu, the New Year.
- A long break. There is no Boxing Day and no twelve days. The celebration is compressed into one evening, December 24, and by the morning of the 26th it is over.
Christmas Eve: A Night for Couples
If you want to understand Japanese Christmas, look into a good restaurant on the evening of December 24. Nearly every table is set for two.
Christmas Eve in Japan is closer to Valentine’s Day than to anything a European would recognise. Nippon.com describes it as a romantic night for couples, especially those not yet married, marked by special dates and the exchange of gifts. The evening has a set shape: a walk under the illuminations, a restaurant dinner, and a present.
A lot of this was written by advertising in the late 1980s. JR Tokai’s Christmas Express television campaign, which began in 1989, told small love stories of couples living apart and reuniting at the station for Christmas, set to the music of Yamashita Tatsuro. It was an advert for a railway, and it also sold an idea of what Christmas Eve was for.
Being single on the night is the flip side. The same expectation that fills the restaurants makes December 24 an awkward evening to spend alone.
KFC: The Christmas Dinner an Advert Wrote
The best-known Japanese Christmas tradition was invented by a fried chicken chain. Nippon.com traces the custom of eating KFC at Christmas to a campaign Kentucky Fried Chicken launched in 1974, and KFC has repeated its slogan, Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii (クリスマスにはケンタッキー), Kentucky for Christmas, every December for decades.
The ritual now has a calendar. Reservations open in early November, the party barrels are collected in timed pickup slots on December 23, 24 and 25, and the queues outside branches on the evening of the 24th are a fixture of the news. It works because Japan had no Christmas dinner of its own, few home kitchens had an oven for a roast bird, and a pre-ordered bucket solved the problem neatly.
The full story, from the Okawara origin legend to how a visitor actually orders a barrel, is in our guide to KFC Christmas in Japan.
Strawberry Shortcake: The Christmas Cake
After the chicken comes the cake, and there is really only one. The Japanese Christmas cake is a light white sponge layered with whipped cream and crowned with fresh strawberries, eaten on Christmas Eve.
Nippon.com dates Japan’s first Christmas cake to 1910, when the confectioner Fujiya sold one, and notes that the strawberry and cream sponge has been the most popular version since the 1960s. Red and white are Japan’s colours of celebration, so the cake looks festive before anyone tastes it. Convenience stores, bakeries and department stores all take reservations from November, and on the afternoon of the 25th whatever is left is marked down hard.
Our guide to the Christmas cake covers the Fujiya story, the 1922 strawberry version and where people actually buy one.
Winter Illuminations
The third pillar of a Japanese Christmas is light. From November the big cities string their avenues with LEDs, and walking under them is a date in itself. Two are worth knowing.
Sapporo White Illumination. Sapporo’s official tourism site describes the tradition of seasonal lights in Japan as beginning in Sapporo in 1981. The display now spreads across Odori Park, Ekimae-dori and the station plazas, and the 2026 to 2027 season runs from November 20, 2026 to March 14, 2027.
Marunouchi Illumination. In Tokyo, about 250 street trees along Marunouchi Naka-dori, near Tokyo Station, are lit in champagne gold. The 2025 to 2026 edition, the 24th, ran from November 13 to February 15, with the lights on until midnight through December.
Neither is a religious display, and both run well past Christmas. That tells you what they are really for. They are winter, made bright, and Christmas is simply the busiest week under them.
Presents from Santa
For children, the Japanese Christmas looks more familiar. Santa comes on the night of the 24th, and the present is waiting in the morning.
The toy maker Bandai has asked parents about Christmas every year since 1995. In its 2025 survey of 600 parents of children aged 3 to 12, the average budget for a child’s Christmas present was 8,378 yen, and toys were the most requested category at 37.7%. The most common way to deliver it was to leave it by the child’s pillow to find on waking, chosen by 32.3% of parents, ahead of special wrapping and placing it under the tree.
Adults exchange presents too, mostly between couples. December’s formal gift season is a separate custom altogether, oseibo, sent to the people who helped you during the year.
December 26: From Christmas to Oshogatsu
The most striking thing about a Japanese Christmas is how completely it vanishes. On the evening of the 25th the shop windows are still red and green. By the morning of the 26th the trees are gone and the same windows hold pine, bamboo and straw rope for the New Year.
The mood changes with them. December’s loud half, the bōnenkai year-end parties, winds down, and the year-end clean of ōsōji begins. The country is getting ready to receive the deity of the new year, and a much older set of customs takes over: the pine and bamboo kadomatsu at the gate, New Year’s Eve noodles, 108 temple bells at midnight and the first shrine visit of the year. The department stores that sold Christmas cakes on the 24th open in January with sealed lucky bags, fukubukuro, for the first sale of the year.
Christmas in Japan, in other words, is the bright prologue. The main event is a week later, and its whole order, from December 13 to the bonfires of mid-January, is set out in the guide to Japanese New Year traditions.
Sources
- Christmas in Japan, Nippon.com around 1% Christian, Meidi-ya's 1886 tree, the 1974 KFC campaign, Fujiya's 1910 cake, Christmas Eve as a couples' night
- National Holidays, Cabinet Office the sixteen holidays and the Emperor's Birthday on February 23
- Holidays in 2019 and 2020, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan the end of the December 23 holiday
- JR Tokai's Christmas Express adverts, Merkmal the 1989 campaign and its music
- Sapporo White Illumination, Welcome to Sapporo the 1981 start, venues, 2026 to 2027 dates
- Marunouchi Illumination 2025, Marunouchi.com about 250 trees in champagne gold, the 24th edition
- Marunouchi Illuminations, GO TOKYO dates and hours
- Bandai Kodomo Survey Vol. 263 on Christmas, Bandai 8,378 yen budget, gifts by the pillow
FAQ
Is Christmas a public holiday in Japan?
No. December 24 and 25 are not among Japan’s sixteen national holidays, and in 2026 Christmas Day falls on an ordinary working Friday. December 23 was a holiday until 2018 as the Emperor’s Birthday, but since 2020 that holiday has been on February 23.
How do Japanese people celebrate Christmas?
Mostly on Christmas Eve. Couples go out for dinner and exchange gifts, families eat fried chicken, often KFC, followed by a strawberry and cream Christmas cake, and children find a present from Santa by their pillow in the morning. City streets are lit with winter illuminations.
Why do Japanese people eat KFC at Christmas?
Because of a Kentucky Fried Chicken campaign launched in 1974 with the slogan Kentucky for Christmas. Japan had no traditional Christmas dinner, few homes had ovens for a roast, and a reserved bucket of chicken filled the gap. The custom has lasted more than fifty years.
Is Christmas a romantic holiday in Japan?
Yes. Christmas Eve is treated much like Valentine’s Day, a night for couples, with restaurant dinners, presents and walks under the illuminations.
Do Japanese people go to church at Christmas?
Very few. Only around 1% of Japanese people identify as Christian, so for most of the country Christmas has no religious meaning. Churches do hold Christmas services.
What happens in Japan after Christmas?
The New Year takes over. From December 26 the Christmas decorations are replaced with pine and straw New Year decorations, the year-end cleaning begins, and the country prepares for Oshōgatsu, the most important holiday of the year, which runs from January 1 to 3.