May 23 is “Kiss Day” in Japan

Japanese are fond of attaching events to dates, and whenever I get in my Mazda MPV, my “car navi” greets me and tells me what special day today is. It might be Word Processing Day, celebrating the sale of the first Japanese language word processor on September 26, 1978, or it might be Sweet Potato Day, honoring the delicious tuber on October 13, just after harvest time. Some of these special days are rather dubious, such as KFC’s promotion of November 21 as “Fried Chicken Day” to commemorate the opening of its first restaurant in Nagoya in 1970 — shameless marketing though it may be, it’s as good a day to go get a bucket of chicken as any. It turns out today (May 23) has been designated as Kisu no Hi (Kiss Day), since it was on this day back in 1946 that the first movie with a kiss scene was shown in Japan. So if you have someone in your life you can kiss, go to it!

Today is Kiss Day in Japan. So here’s your awesome yuri kiss.