"Eat Salmon on Christmas!" comes from a memorable scene in the 45th episode of *Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger*, a tokusatsu show in Toei's long-running Super Sentai franchise4. The episode, titled "Looking Forward to Christmas," featured a Gangler monster named Samon Shakekistantin (サモーン・シャケキスタンチン), a salmon-themed villain who replaced chicken with salmon fillets all across town and shouted "No Chicken! If you're Japanese, eat salmon!" from an electric billboard5.

The meme takes the form of the hashtag #クリスマスにはシャケを食え (or its variations) posted every Christmas season, usually accompanied by fan art of Samon, photos of salmon dishes, or parodies referencing the episode5. What started as a fan community ritual turned into a broader cultural event, with supermarket chains, government agencies, and even the show's own production studio leaning into the joke year after year6.

Eating fried chicken on Christmas is a uniquely Japanese tradition, rooted in KFC Japan's "Kentucky for Christmas" advertising campaigns that started nationwide in 19744. KFC manager Takeshi Okawara began promoting fried chicken "party barrels" as a Christmas meal substitute in 1970, and by the 2010s, Christmas Eve sales accounted for nearly five percent of KFC Japan's annual revenue4.

On December 23, 2018, episode 45 of *Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger* aired on TV Asahi1. The episode introduced Samon Shakekistantin, voiced by veteran tokusatsu voice actor Kyosei Tsukui7. In the story, the salmon monster replaced all the chicken prepared for Christmas with salmon fillets and urged people to eat salmon instead5. The episode also noted that in France, eating salmon on Christmas is an actual tradition, though this was unrelated to the villain's rampage6.

The episode had extra anticipation among fans because of the "Christmas Episode" tradition in Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series, where December episodes often feature significant plot developments or special renditions5.

"Eat Salmon on Christmas" is a rare example of a fictional villain's throwaway line producing measurable effects on food marketing and government policy in Japan. AEON's 2019 "Merry Christmas Salmon" campaign explicitly positioned salmon as a Christmas alternative5, and Japan's Ministry of Agriculture adopted the hashtag as part of their broader push to increase declining fish consumption rates1.

The Ministry of Agriculture's involvement, starting in 2020 and becoming explicit in 2021, is particularly notable. The ministry's campaign to promote salmon and trout consumption at Christmas (#サーモンでクリス鱒) predated their adoption of the meme's specific hashtag, but fans and journalists recognized the connection immediately2. By 2023, the ministry was directly posting images of the fictional character Samon on their official account6.

Major Japanese newspapers Asahi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun covered the tradition as a cultural story in December 2024, marking its transition from internet inside joke to recognized seasonal event6. The meme also has its own Wikipedia articles in both English and Japanese16.

Within the tokusatsu production pipeline, the meme created a lasting tradition. Christmas episodes of Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series produced after 2018 routinely include salmon references as nods to the original5.

In November 2019, AEON, one of Japan's largest supermarket chains, launched a promotional campaign titled "Merry Christmas Salmon" (#メリクリサーモン), proposing salmon as a Christmas dinner option5. Tokusatsu fans immediately noticed the connection and responded by pairing AEON's hashtag with the original "Eat Salmon on Christmas" tag, helping both trend on Twitter5.

The show's own production ecosystem started embedding salmon references as recurring easter eggs. Subsequent Super Sentai titles included salmon elements in their Christmas episodes5. *Kamen Rider Zero-One*, the 2019-2020 Kamen Rider series directed partly by Shojiro Nakazawa (who also directed Samon's original episode), featured a chicken shop with a sign reading "We Have Salmon" in its December 22, 2019 Christmas episode5. That same episode included a boy who wanted to eat salmon for Christmas dinner and a child holding a replica of Samon's weapon5.

In 2020, TV Asahi's paid channel revived Samon Shakekistantin as the promotional character for a special program called "Super Sentai Christmas Dai-Syake-sen" (クリスマス大鮭戦), a marathon of the franchise's Christmas episodes5. The special gave Samon a new voice performance by Kyosei Tsukui, which moved fans because Tsukui had publicly revealed his ALS diagnosis in October 2019 and retired from regular voice work after the original series7. Also in 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and the Fisheries Agency posted salmon recipes on Facebook as part of a Christmas campaign6.

The government involvement escalated in 2021. On Christmas Eve, the Ministry of Agriculture's official Twitter account posted salmon dishes under the hashtags #サーモンでクリス鱒 ("Salmon de Christmas," a pun using the character for trout) and #クリスマスにはシャケを食え2. The post introduced recipes like *chanchan-yaki* (salmon and vegetable grill), calling the colors of salmon, carrot, green pepper, and onion "Christmas colors"2. Tokusatsu fans erupted with joy, posting responses like "Tokusatsu moved the Ministry of Agriculture!" and "Eat Salmon on Christmas is now government-approved"2. Ryo Yokoyama, the actor who played Sakuya Hikawa/Patren 2gou in the original series, joked on Twitter: "We have to consider the possibility that we couldn't defeat Samon"5.

In December 2022, an unexpected catalyst arrived. Animal rights group PETA staged a protest at the KFC Shibuya branch on Christmas, with members dressed as Santa Claus holding signs urging people to go vegan and stop eating chicken6. Japanese social media users responded by circulating the "Eat Salmon on Christmas" hashtag as a humorous counter-suggestion6.

By March 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture posted a "Fish Day" promotion on Twitter featuring an image of Samon himself6. The Fisheries Agency followed up with a thank-you video for Samon on the ministry's official YouTube channel "BUZZ MAFF"6. That December, the ministry used both #クリスマスにはシャケを食え and a new tag #シャケざんまい ("Salmon Extravaganza") in their Christmas posts6.

The meme reached mainstream print media in December 2024, when newspapers including Asahi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun published articles about the annual tradition6. Voice actor Tsukui, who by this point had lost his voice and the use of his limbs due to ALS, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on December 25 that he had eaten salmon sashimi, writing "Being able to eat is a wonderful thing! Everyone, please have a delicious and warm Christmas" (translated from Japanese)6.

In November 2025, electronics company Thanko released a collaborative product with Toei: a grill named "Like a Hungry Salmon" (飢えたシャケのように), themed entirely around the meme3. The grill's body features prints of Samon Shakekistantin along with his safe combination and vault imagery from the show6. Fans called it "the best official merchandise" and praised the product's absurd commitment to the bit3. In December 2025, the "All Super Sentai Exhibition" in Sendai held a special Samon Shakekistantin Christmas greeting event6.

Toei's official YouTube channel, Toei Tokusatsu YouTube Official, uploads the original episode "Looking Forward to Christmas" as a limited-time stream every December, ensuring new viewers discover Samon's crusade each year6.