Looking Back, Looking Forward: Christmas and New Year in Japan

End of year (nenmatsu) in Japan is an extremely busy time - so much so that BritishProf missed the regular November blog post. My apologies! At university, graduation thesis supervision is the biggest burden - but that is no excuse. Anyway, I'll try to catch up here, starting with the incredible changing colours of the autumn leaves in November, a phenomenon known as kōyo (紅葉) in Japanese. Other countries also admire the fall foliage but I often think that if a country has a specific word for a phenomenon it must be especially culturally significant. It certainly seems so in Japan, with organised tours to some of the most popular spots!

December brings with it Christmas illuminations, music, decorations, and promotions everywhere including the beautiful tree at the university and hot chocolate and churros for the students! As I've written before (here), in terms of food, Christmas in Japan means two things: chicken (not turkey!) and cakes. The former is chiefly due to a smart advertising campaign by Kentucky in the 1970s whose slogan was "Kentucky for Christmas" (クリスマスにはケンタッキー). As for cakes, Christmas cake is not the rich brandy-soaked fruit cake with marzipan and icing popular in the UK but a sponge cake usually with chocolate or strawberries. On Christmas Eve, the basement of department stores - where the grocery section is found - is usually horribly busy with crowds jostling to secure the best cake before they sell. After that, Christmas ends abruptly: Christmas Day (25th) is a regular working day in Japan and all Christmas decorations magically disappear. The British concept of the 12 days of Christmas with Christmas ending on January 6th is distinctly odd for most Japanese!

How successful has the blog been this year? In actual fact, 2025 was the most successful year ever, with over 105,000 views and two broken records: the most views for a single month (September with 24,379) and the most views for a single day (October 23rd with 2,107).

Blog Views (2025)

To put this in perspective, since the blog started back in 2017 it has enjoyed a slow but steady climb - the all time total number of views is now over 426,000 - but as the graph below shows, the last two years have been something else. Thank-you!  

All Time Blog Views (2017-2025)

If you want to look back, as is the tradition at this time of the year, you can see the Top 4 All Time Popular Posts listed on the page you are now reading!

Talking of looking back (furikaeru=振り返る in Japanese) the Japanese do that as much as anyone else, but they also enjoy "forget the year" (bōnenkai=忘年会) parties which tend to involve copious amounts of sake. There are many other unique end of year traditions. Unlike in the UK, where spring cleaning is the norm, in Japan the major house cleaning takes places now (ōsōji=大掃除). Japanese people don't send Christmas cards but instead send new year postcards known as nengajō (年賀状) which all arrive simultaneously on January 1st! Returning to one's - or if married one's husband's - home town for New Year is typical in Japan, though recent years have seen the rise of "separate homecoming" (separēto kissei=セパレート帰省) where husbands and wives return to their respective hometowns (thereby reducing the inevitable arguments with the in-laws!). Japanese also love playing games at new year, particularly karuta playing cards - named after the Portuguese word for letter or card - which involves matching one half of a card, which is read out aloud, with its corresponding pair. And a visit to the local shrine or temple (hatsumōde=初詣) - either soon after midnight on the 1st, or over the following two days - to make their prayers and wishes is a new year staple.

Food wise, the traditional food eaten during the New Year's holidays from January 1st to 3rd is called osechi (おせち料理) and consists of various items which symbolise longeviity and health, such as the "U" shaped shrimp which is said to resemble a bent old person's back. Mochi (餅) or sticky rice cakes are probably one of the most popular snacks - see here and here for past blogposts on eating and making your own! Finally, in terms of TV viewing, the Kōhaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦) or "Red and White Song Contest" in which the top singers of the year split into teams of red (women) and white (men) and vie for the votes of audience and judges has been the traditional go-to show for New Year's Eve. Recently, though, young people have been shunning this for the many comedy shows and special manzai (stand-up) performances broadcast during the New Year's holiday to celebrate the tradition of "first laughter" - the precursor to this comedy bonanza is the prestigious M-1 Grand Prix Manzai competition final which was broadcast on December 21st this year.

Finally, in terms of memorable stories from 2025, these have to include the selection of Takaichi as Japan's first female prime-minister, the hottest summer on record, the stunning success of the Osaka-Kansai Expo which attracted over 25 million visitors, and the surging food (especially) rice prices. For me personally, though, the story which I cannot forget is the rapid rise of Japan's far-right Sanseito Party following the July House of Councillor's Election, something which marked a frightening xenophobic shift in tone in the discourse on migration and "foreigners." My paper discussing the reasons for the dramatic emergence of a party which many have likened to Reform UK and Germany's AfD should be out soon - expect a serious blog post at the start of 2026! In the meantime, let me wish all you loyal readers a very happy new year - or as the Japanese say, yoi otoshi o (良いお年を)! As always COMMENTS are most welcome.