Also, Christmas in Japan is more like a Valentine's Day-style couples' holiday. Why is that?
So I began formulating a response, but the prudence in me decided to check for anything already written on this sub. See below. I think more can be added, but this does cover a lot of it. I’ve added my two cents below.
So Christmas was an import influenced mostly by Americans in the post-war, but Europeans also had influence. So it is a hybrid of many globalized cultures and traditions as a secular and social holiday in Japan.
Also, Christmas in Japan is more like a Valentine's Day-style couples' holiday. Why is that?
So the answer in the link above suggests that the romantic development might have origins in Christmas party socials developed by Japanese women. I have no reason to disbelieve it is as an origin. The romanticism that evolved in the post-war in the media (ie movies and TV) and through social gatherings is very much possible in this era of change. Dower (1999) shows that there was shifting ideas of love and romance in the media during the Occupation era. There was also print media on love and romance since modernization that began to circulate widely. With increased women’s freedoms (ie civil rights changes and shifting ‘traditional’ roles) in the post-war, this can be a deductively reasoned effect.
Kimura (2003) writes there was a shift in Christmas advertising targeting young couples in the 1980s to 1990s. It was mostly a family occasion. Considering also this is when Japan was recognized as an advanced economy and policy on consumer spending had come into focus in the 1980s. There was very much focus internationally that Japanese consumption was lagging for an economy of its size and the amount of savings parked in deposits. The thought was that since Japanese consumers were working 6 days a week (high comparable only to lesser developed economies) and the yen was unusually weak, so lowering work hours and boosting the yen would increase consumption and balance trade. Japan was accused of protecting its consumers by putting up barriers against distribution, also using other means to make imports effectively expensive, and thus monopolistic control from domestic retailers.
In addition demographic changes began to be recognized. The birthrate had been falling from roughly average of two births per woman to barely above one in the 1990s. With the already paltry spending on Christmas compared to elsewhere, it could be deduced businesses were shifting to other demographic segments. Kimura also writes in the early 2000s there was a shift to cater to a variety of women’s taste in Christmas cakes suggesting how women were recognized as a powerful consumer group. Because of the economic stagnation of the 1990s, it would suggest a recognition of how more and more single women had spending power (Nakano, Wagatsuma 2004).
Kimura has an interesting conclusion that would best summarize how Christmas might be understood in Japan:
From a practical standpoint, the findings of this study might help marketers understand that a product typically associated with the Christmas season does not necessarily require any “proper” episodes related to Christmas consumption. For example, some in Japan eat non-traditional Christmas cakes which are different from the cakes of Europe and North America (where Christmas consumer culture originates). This is because there is no genuine or “right” way of consuming a “correct” or genuine product. One cannot define “correct consumption” in specific terms. Thus, the marketing strategy for a product might need to be changed. Instead of trying to communicate a product’s “correct” consumption episodes to consumers, they could give the product an “open-ended” status, thereby allowing consumers to create a legitimacy on their own and decide the product’s appropriateness for a given need or consumption situation.
So my conclusion is that Christmas is more a commercial import and has shifted depending on the economic conditions. For instance traditions can evolve in spite of religion such as Jewish patronage of Chinese restaurants on Christmas. So Japan has imported the commercial aspects, but not the religion aspects.
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