For my project, I wanted to look for everyday nationalism in the online web menu pages for McDonald's Japan, KFC Japan and MOS Burger Japan. 

By clicking through the online web menu pages, I looked for presentations of the nation, mainly in the form of nation flagging (in the food advertisement picture) and naming of the nation (in the title of the product and description sentences for provided products). 

McDonald's, KFC Japan and MOS Burger are the top three popular fast food shop in Japan (link to an article written in Japanese about this is attached to this post). 

Therefore, I wanted to compare what kind of (and whether if there is any) everyday nationalism can be found in the online web menu pages of these popular fast food shops. 

Interestingly, I was not able to find so much representations of the nation in the online web menu page of McDonald's Japan. At this particular period of time I looked through their online web menu page, I only found two kinds of everyday nationalism. 

However, McDonald's was the only fast food shop which used flagging of the nation as a design in the food advertisement picture. This was seen in the advertisement picture for the limited edition Tiramisu flavoured triangle choco-pie (source 1-1). Tiramisu is known as a famous Italian dessert and therefore flagging this food with the Italian flag feels appropriate, simply representing the strong link we make between Tiramisu and the country Italy.

The other kind of everyday nationalism I found was naming of the nation in the description sentence of the Teriyaki Burger (source 1-2). Telling that the taste of this particular burger is unique to Japan reinforces some kind of Japaneseness of the product and probably also a sense of nationhood in the consumers that prefers to buy this product. 

Although I was not able to find so much representations of the nation this time, I remember McDonald's having limited edition food menu such as the Hawaiian Burger and Texas Burger in the past. Hence McDonald's  seems to use the nation often as a marketing campaign method, just like how they used the Italian flag for the limited edition Tiramisu flavoured triangle choco-pie. 

However, the overall fact that McDonald's do not really use any references to the nation in their usual menu is meaningful, as McDonald's is a really big and popular fast food shop and they have customers from all over the world. Except for some campaigns and limited edition foods, they seem to somewhat avoid specific representations of a particular nation in their menu, probably to make sure that it is appropriate and comfortable for their global customers. 

KFC repeatedly wrote "kokusan" which means "nation-made" to highlight that the chicken used in their product is "100% nation-made" in various places of their online web menu-page. While a lot of the other fast food shops in Japan use imported meat for their burgers, the fact that the ingredients used in KFC is made in Japan seems to raise the brand image of KFC Japan. It also seems to put value to their product by functioning to ensure the quality and taste of their product. 

In some of their menu description, they used words like "Japanese style taste", which specifically points out that the taste of that particular product is something unique to the Japanese food culture. In such menu (source 2-3 and source 2-4), they also stated that the product is made of something particularly Japanese, for example the "nation-made chicken" and the "cooked seaweed from Hyogo prefecture" which further adds on to the Japaneseness of the product. 

References to the nation in the KFC online menu page therefore seems to be mainly used as a  means to raise the brand image - repeated indication that the ingredients are made in Japan differentiates KFC from the other fast food brands popular in Japan, putting additional value to the quality and taste of the products they provide. 

 

Everyday nationalism in the form of naming of the nation was found most in the online menu page of MOS Burger Japan. MOS Burger Japan was unique in that it seemed to name the nation (not only Japan and also in and several levels) which is particularly famous for the food used in their menu to put extra value to their product. 

While KFC seemed to be quite obsessed with the "100% made in Japan" brand, MOS burger also indicated that their ingredients are from other nations in some of their products - for example the banana milk drink from source 3-4, which wrote that the banana used in the drink is made in Philippines. 

MOS also made references to the nation not just a national level but also in a prefectural level. For example, in source 3-1 the explanation of the burger states that it used "100% nation made meat" and "nation-made cheese" But it also states that the cheese used is made specifically in Hokkaido, which is a place famous for the production of that particular cheese. In another product, they also refer to the nation on both the national level and prefectural level by stating that they use "nation-made unshiu mikan" and "Setouchi mikan" for their Gingerale with some citrus syrup (source 3-5). 

Naming of the nation which is famous for the particular ingredient used in the product in this manner in the online menu description section seems to guarantee that the taste of the product is delicious for the customers. Unlike KFC, naming of the nation is not really a way to add a "kokusan" brand to the shop, but to explain the taste of the product to the customers and to ensure its quality.