December 2, 2010 in All about Japan, Sekaione Press by adminsekaione

All about Japan : Christmas

December 25th is not a Japanese national holiday. Unless it is on weekend, Japanese people work and go to school on the day. Christmas is mostly a commercial event in Japan. Many people don’t know exactly what the origin of Christmas is. The big corporations do the main decorating. They light their buildings and the trees.

Christmas in Japan is quite different from the Chrismas celebrated in most western countries , It is estimated that less than 1% of Japan’s population is Christian, with the majority of Japanese being tolerant of all faiths: Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto, Islam etc. In spite of this, the Japanese are great lovers of festivals and celebrations, including Christmas.

The Japanese celebrate Christmas Eve by eating a ‘Christmas Cake’ which the father of the family purchases on his way home from work (or his wife does in the case where he has to work on Christmas Eve). Stores all over carry versions of this Christmas cake and drop the price of it drastically on December 25th in order to sell everything out by the 26th.

Christmas Eve has been hyped by the T.V. media as being a time for romantic miracles. It is seen as a time to be spent with one’s boyfriend or girlfriend in a romantic setting, so fancy restaurants and hotels are often booked solid at this time. It is often also a time when girls get to reveal their affections to boys and vice versa. Because of this, extending a girl an invitation to be together on Christmas Eve has very deep, romantic implications.

Christmas presents are exchanged between people with romantic commitments as well as close friends. The presents tend to be ‘cute’ presents and often include Teddy Bears, flowers, scarves, rings and other jewelry. Christmas cards are also given to close friends.

More obligatory year-end presents are given during this season as well to people who have done you a favor during the year, however, in contrast to Christmas presents, they are given between companies, to bosses, to teachers, and family friends. These presents are known as ‘Oseibo‘ and are generally things which are perishable or which wear out quickly for which the price can readily be checked because of the system of ‘on’ and ‘giri’ (loosely translated obligation and reciprocity). These presents are usually purchased at department stores so that the recipient can check the price and return something which relates to the scale of reciprocity.

The Christmas season comes during the month of the year-end parties. Company groups, hobby groups, sports groups, etc. often book a section of a restaurant to have drinking parties, known as ‘bonenkai‘ [forget the old year parties]. This phenomena leads to streets, subways, and trains full of drunk people  during this season.

Christmas lighting and displays are often up at the end of October until december 26th!

The shops are open Christmas day and all other days up to New Years day, except they close early on the 31st.

Most shops are then closed on the 1st, 2nd & 3rd. After this it depends on the shop, some will stay closed longer. The trend is towards shops opening on the 2nd of January.