The Colonel Comes to Japan

The Colonel Comes to Japan is a 1981 documentary exploring how the American cooperation Kentucky Fried Chicken entered the Japanese market.

Focusing on the daily duties of Loy Weston, Chairman of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Japan, the program examines the cultural differences which had to be overcome for the American poultry powerhouse to open and maintain over 300 restaurants in Japan in eleven years.

Highlights of the documentary include footage of the many life-size statues of “Colonel Harlan Sanders” being brought out to the new Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, future employees diligently working their way through “Basic Operation Training” and “On the Job Training”, training in the behind-the-counter technique by a Japanese woman who claims to be able to say, “May I help you?” in over one hundred shadings of intonation, and much more.

Throughout the documentary we’ll explore the different cultural values Kentucky Fried Chicken had to adapt and adopt to, to interact and make a for-profit business in Japan.