In the bleak midwinter Japanese regain appetite for a Pagan Christmas*

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Monday December 24, 2007
The Guardian

Christmas hedonism in Japan is big business,  Here only 1-2% of the
population is Christian and a Japanese Christmas has nothing to do with
Christ.  As businesses try to persuade workers to part with a hefty
slice of their winter bonuses, Tokyoites are regaining their appetite
for hedonistic festive sprees after years of frugality.

This is in spite of a recent Bank of Japan report showing business
confidence among Japanese companies at its lowest level in more than two
years as concerns rise over market turmoil and a possible slowdown in
the US economy.

The bleakness has not yet infected Tokyo's Mandarin hotel. Its Christmas
Suite package, which includes a tree decorated with 11.5m yen (£51,000)
worth of jewellery to keep, vintage champagne, a chauffeur-driven car
and truffles for breakfast, is on offer at £65,000 a night.

The momentum behind Japan's idiosyncratic year-end rituals comes from
businesses eager to persuade workers to spend big on embracing a pagan
spirit. And the consumer is happy to oblige.

Just under a third of men in their 20s, and 34% of women of the same
age, received Christmas presents last year, according to the Hakuhodo
Institute for Life and Living. Women in their 30s were the most
generous, with more than 65% of them giving presents.

Despite growing fears of an economic slowdown, analysts expect Japanese
workers to set aside cash this year too. "There will be some left over
to splurge," said Mariko Fujiwara, research director at the Hakuhodo
Institute.

In Japan, as in Britain, many associate Christmas with a kindly looking
elderly man with a white beard - only here his name is Colonel Sanders,
whose KFC outlets serve the nearest many families come to a traditional
Christmas dinner, with work-weary fathers prepared to queue around the
block for a "family feast".

Christmas cakes, meanwhile, owe more to Sara Lee than to Mrs Beeton.
There is no room here for the heavy, fruity concoctions eaten in the
west; instead confectioners boost their annual sales with simple sponge
cakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

Yet amid the commercialism there are signs that more Japanese are making
the connection between Christmas and family. "There was a time when
fathers would celebrate Christmas by spending their bonuses in a hostess
club, while their wives and children waited at home," Fujiwara said.

By Boxing Day, though, it is almost as if Christmas never happened. With
lightning speed the decorations come down as businesses shut up shop for
the new year, when millions of urban Japanese return to their home towns
for a few days of overeating, napping in front of the TV and reigniting
family rows.

Only then, perhaps, do they grasp the true meaning of Christ.