For a country without deeply ingrained Christian traditions, Japan has taken to Christmas with evident fervor. The moment Halloween passes, holiday decorations spring up around the country as families reserve buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken and couples plan romantic dates on Christmas Eve.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising, then, that the "Harry Potter" franchise, itself loosely associated with the genre of Christmas movies, has firmly entrenched itself in Japan’s pop cultural consciousness despite no direct ties between the series and Japan. Even a quarter of a century after cameras started rolling on the set of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the Wizarding World fandom is alive and well — nowhere more so than in Japan.

“'Harry Potter' has achieved a cumulative box office revenue of more than ¥110 billion (about $700 million) in Japan, ranking first among foreign film series in the country,” says Sachiko Yamazaki, vice president and general manager of Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo. “Since the release of the first film in 2001, it has gained fans across three generations and enjoys enduring popularity with regular television broadcasts.”

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