Every time the Christmas season arrives, the streets of Japan will definitely play Tatsuro Yamashita’s song “Christmas Eve”. When writing the previous article, I discovered the JR Tokai series of advertisements with the theme of depicting long-distance relationships - “Cinderella Express”. Article link: Cinderella Express | The bittersweet Shinkansen long-distance love story of the Showa era

In 1987, the year before the Cinderella Express advertisement was broadcast, JR Tokai had just separated from the national railway and achieved privatization. JR Tokai’s advertising marketing team broke the fixed national impression in the minds of consumers with the brand new advertising worldview of “Shinkansen is a Communication Media that allows people to meet and connects cities”.

While searching for information, I found that the more widely known and more romantic one is the “Christmas Express”.

Extending the above-mentioned advertising worldview, the advertisement producer Kazuyoshi Hayakawa came up with the story of “a couple in a long-distance relationship using the Shinkansen to meet on Christmas Eve”.

This series had a version every year from 1988 to 1992, and a special edition was released in the millennium year 2000. The following is a collection of all versions that I have translated and compressed.

1988 “The best present is you coming back” (Eri Fukatsu) 1989 “The one ringing the jingle bells is you coming back” (Riho Makise) 1990 “There are nights when I really want to see you” (Rina Takahashi) 1991 “The person you want to meet must also want to meet you” (Miho Mizobuchi) 1992 “I want to make up for the time we couldn’t meet tonight” (Takami Yoshimoto) 2000 “People are surely not alone” (Fukatsu and Makise reappear)

Bilibili video link: (with Chinese subtitles) Xmas Express-JR Tokai CM collection

# 1988 Eri Fukatsu

After the first version was broadcast, it generated a very big response. Eri Fukatsu was only a 15-year-old new actress at that time, and the audience frequently called to ask who this actress was. The song “Christmas Eve” also became a well-known Christmas song for the whole nation.

1988 was the heyday of the bubble economy, and Japanese society was full of a restless atmosphere at that time, and so was love. However, this advertisement did not cater to the times, but depicted the pure love of teenagers. No matter what age, when people see this advertisement, they can recall the palpitations of their first love.

# 1989 version Riho Makise

This version can be said to be the most popular version in this series. 1989 was a special year. The Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War came to an end; while in Japan, Emperor Showa passed away, and the era name changed from Showa to Heisei, ushering in a new era. In that era, railways had neither automatic ticket gates nor LED time displays. Meeting someone was a very heart-pounding event. Makise was wearing a red coat and a fashionable hat, holding a gift in her hand, running towards the platform. She must have been so well-prepared for the meeting that she forgot about the time.

Modern people may no longer be as excited about “waiting” and “meeting” as they used to be. You can check the latest traffic conditions and train arrival times on your mobile phone. Even if you are going to be late, you can just send a message through a communication app.

Running towards the platform and waiting anxiously seem to have become the “lost beauty” of the last century.

I found a long article on a Japanese website that carefully researched and deduced this advertisement. If you understand Japanese and are interested, you can read it.

‘89 Riho Makise’s JR Tokai Christmas Express CM is so good that I ended up writing about it

# 1992 version Takami Yoshimoto

My personal favorite is this version. In this version, the woman no longer waits for the other person, but actively goes to see him; just like Rika in the classic TV drama “Tokyo Love Story” broadcast in 1991, women in the Heisei era have become more active in love.

Constantly practicing smiling before meeting, but crying out “eggplant” with teary eyes when finally seeing her lover, is really too adorable.

From the perspective of the times, in the past, photos had to be taken with film and developed at a photo studio; while in this advertisement, the female protagonist takes a photo in a photo booth and directly takes the photo without waiting and pastes it on a greeting card, which to a certain extent reflects the trend of the times and the development of new technology.

# The birth of story-based advertising

The Christmas Express series of advertisements can be said to be a classic case in the advertising industry that is worth learning from.

Takehiko Miura, the planner who created this series of advertisements, and director Kazuyoshi Hayakawa created a series of advertisements with similar styles from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. The biggest feature of these advertisements is that they depict heartwarming stories centered on people’s daily lives, or simply put, “story-based advertising”.

In an interview with a magazine, Miura said,

Adding surprising or funny elements from the extraordinary world can also leave a deep impression; however, I think that ordinary things that happen in everyday life are the most interesting, and some story scripts can be found in them. Therefore, stories that start from everyday life may be able to capture people’s hearts more simply and directly. The most important thing is to be able to resonate with the audience.

In the 2000 special edition, mobile phones appeared.

If in 2020, people in the 5G era were asked to create a “Christmas Express” advertisement, what kind of story would we depict?

Although it’s a bit early, Merry Christmas.