JAPAN'S *KIT KAT* OBSESSION

THE KIT KAT first came to Japan in 1973, but the first 100 percent, truly on-brand Japanese Kit Kat arrived at the turn of millennium, when-

The marketing department of  Nestle Japan, the manufacturer of Kit Kats in the country, decided to experiment with new flavors, sweetness levels and types of packaging in an effort to increase sales.

UPSCALE boutiques devoted to the candy sell bars in a world of flavors. The seven-story Don Quijote  megastore in the  Shibuya district of Tokyo is open 24 hours a day, but it's hard to say when it's rush hour, because there's always a rush.

A labyrinth of aisles leads to one soaring, psychedelic display after another presided over by cartoon mascots , including the mascot of Don  Quijote itself : an enthusiastic blue penguin named Donpen who points shoppers toward toy sushi kits and face masks soaked with   snail excretions and rainbow gel pens and split-toe socks.

The candy section is vast, with cookies and cakes printed with Guidetama, Sanrio's  lazy egg character, and shiny packages of dehydrated, caramelized  squid.

It's one of the few places where an extensive array of  Japan's many Kit Kat flavors is for sale.

Though the chocolate bar is sold in more than 100 countries, including China, Thailand, India, Russia and the United States, it's one of-

Japan's best selling chocolate  brands and has achieved such a distinctive place in the market that several people in Tokyo told me that they though Kit Kat was a Japanese product.

In the United States, where it has been distributed by Hershey since 1970, it is drugstore candy. In Japan, the Kit Kat has levels. The Kit Kat has range.

It's found in department stores and luxurious. Kit Kat-devoted boutiques that resemble high-end  shoe stores, a single ingot to a silky peel-away sheath, stacked in slim boxes and tucked inside ultrasmooth-opening drawers, which a well-dressed, multilingual sales clerk slodes open for you as you browse.

Flavors change constantly, with many appearing as limited-edition runs. They can be esoteric and so carefully tailored for a Japanese audience as to seem to a translatable to a global mass market, but the bars have fans all over the world.

Kit Kat fixers buy up boxes and carry them back to devotees in the United States and Europe. All this helps the Kit Kat maintain a singular, cultlike status.   

The honor and serving of the latest operational  research on this out of the world candy, chocolate,  continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher Tejal Rao.