Originally Posted by
osarusan
Time-wise, about the same as it seems to be in Ireland. The odd shop has some decorations for sale, but not actually decorating the shop yet. No songs yet that I've heard, but that isn't really a big part of it over here.
The Japanese don't even have Christianity as a facade for all the spending, but that doesn't bother them. It really is just for kids here, a family with young kids will celebrate Christmas, but those with no kids, or older kids won't really. It is not a holiday here, I've worked on Christmas day, I always said "Happy Christmas" to the students, and a few looked at me confusedly for a second before it clicked that it was actually Christmas day.
New Years day is the big day here. It's far more traditional and important than Christmas.