Happy Birthday, Colonel

September 9th is the birthday of the late Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of the American fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken.

カーネル・サンダーズ (Colonel Sanders) died in 1980 at the age of ninety. But if he were still alive, he would turn 121 this Friday.

Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants are popular in Japan…especially at Christmastime. Many KFC restaurants in Japan have life-sized statues of Col. Sanders out front.

Most Japanese people think, though, that Colonel Sanders first name is actually 「カーネル」 (Colonel). They have no idea that his name is actually Harland Sanders and “colonel” is a rank in the military (the Japanese equivalent is 「大佐」).
And, also, Kentucky Fried Chicken is often shortened to “KFC” in America…but in Japan, it’s normally called 「ケンタッキー」 (“Kentucky“) for short.

Click here to read the post I wrote last year about the 40th anniversary of KFC in Japan. That post also has links to other posts I wrote that tell about the popularity of KFC at X-mas in Japan and also about the “Curse of the Colonel“ in Japanese baseball.

Anyways, to celebrate Colonel Sanders’ birthday, Kentucky Fried Chicken in Japan is offering a set called the 「カーネル・バースデー・パック」　(“Colonel Birthday Pack”), which has three “Original Chicken” and three “Colonel Crispy” chicken, for ¥990 until 2011 September 21st.

The special price of ¥990 was chosen for this campaign because Colonel Sanders birthday is the ninth day of the ninth month (September 9th).