Santa Claus in Japan

For the last ten years I've been sharing places you can meet Santa Claus in the Greater Tokyo area / Kanto on my personal blog. When I first started the lists of all the places you could get a photo with Santa, or at least meet him, there were very few places you could meet Santa Claus in my own prefecture of Saitama Prefecture. Those Santa Claus visits that did exist, were most often Japanese people dressed up as Santa.

But in 2015 the number of places you could meet a North Pole or Lapland Santa had started increasing. Not just in Saitama, but all over the Kanto plain. Toysrus had started doing a Santa Claus meet and greet, with photo, in most branches. At that time, they still had a lot of branches in the Kanto plain. And department stores jumped on the trend and organized Santa Claus photo opportunities. It got to the point that by 2019 there was a really great choice of places to meet Santa Claus and get a photo with him. I even found one place with a proper Santa Grotto in Tochigi. 

Then the pandemic hit. In 2022 I did a round up of places you could meet Santa Claus in the Kanto plain and there were only ten places on the list. Last year, there were a lot more, but still not nearly as many as before the pandemic. This year, there are even more. But Toysrus have not brought back their Santa Claus event. And some of the malls that had a Santa Claus event for a few years before the pandemic, still don't have one scheduled for this year. But thankfully there is a much greater choice in 2024 of where you can meet Santa Claus in the Greater Tokyo area. 

Have you been to see Santa Claus in Japan? Will you go or have you been this year?