Christmas in Japan

Do you wonder what Christmas is like in Japan? It is estimated that less than 1% of Japan's population is Christian. Also, 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.

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Many Western customs related to observing Christmas have been adopted by the Japanese. Lots of people decorate Christmas trees at home and hold parties around Christmas Day. Japanese people tend to find things of interest from abroad and transform them into something that is uniquely Japanese. It's a Japanese way to celebrate Christmas Eve by eating Christmas cakes.

Christmas Eve has also become a night for lovers to go out and spend a romantic time together at fancy restaurants or hotels. It isn't easy to make reservations for such restaurants and hotels at the last minute on this day.

Besides exchanging Christmas gifts, there is a custom of sending oseibo (the end of the year gift) from business to business in Japan.
Japanese Holiday Gifts

December is the bounenkai (forget-the-year-party) season in Japan. Christmas parties tend to be mixed up with bounenkai. You see many drunk people on the street on December nights in Japan.

For Japanese people, Christmas is an enjoyable day in the year, but Japanese New Year is more important than Christmas.

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