The One about National Donut Day and Mister Donut in Japan

In the United States, National Donut Day (or National Doughnut Day) is celebrated on the first Friday of June and again in November.

While the one in June is known as the the day the Salvation Army in Chicago honored members who fought during World War I by serving donuts.

Of course, there are others such as Jelly-filled Doughnut Day on June 8th (and sometimes June 9th), National Cream-filled Doughnut Day on September 14 and the National Boston Cream Pie Day on October 23rd and Buy a Doughnut Day on October 30th.

As for November 5th, that National Donut Day was invented by John-Bryan Hopkins, a food writer who runs the website Foodimentary.

With that being said, as National Donut Day is celebrated in America, as we see many donut shops expanding overseas, they carry the tradition to other countries and other countries tend to follow trends.

While I personally not have seen other countries going crazy in June for National Donut Day, a journalist I know in Japan asked if I created a TikTok video for the purpose of National Donut Day.

And the answer is no. It was a coincidence as I have been listening to a lot of Yamashita Tatsuro music and “Donuts Song” is one I have been listening to and it happens that I was going through my photos of donut shops and bakeries and created a donut video.

With that being said, it would be a good segue to Mister Donut (or known in Japan as “misdo”), a donut shop which originated in the US and is seen all over Japan.

Mister Donut was a fast food franchise in the US that was created back in 1956, but now its headquarters are in Japan and the country has more than 1,300 stores.

In the US, many of the stores were acquired by Allied Lyons in 1990 and would become Dunkin’ Donuts shops. And there is only one last Mister Donut left operating in the US and that’s in Godfrey, Illinois.

While in Japan, Mister Donut is owned by Duskin Co., Ltd., a part of the Mitsui Conglomerate and they are everywhere!

The first Mister Donut I visited in Japan back in 1999…near Kanagawa University.

The first Mister Donut was in Minoh, Osaka back in 1971 and a Mister Donut training center was constructed in Japan. But it was Duskin Company’s general manager Keiji Chiba who was also the director of food industries who did a little tweaking by adjusting the recipes for Japanese consumption (for one, Japanese feel that American sweets are just way too sugary sweet) and also giving the company a higher class image.

Even as you look at the official website in Japan, you can tell how the image differences between a Mister Donut vs. a normal donut shop.

Mister Donut is great on creativity and their seasonal offerings often have people coming in to check what flavors they have coming out. And it’s not all about donuts, the company is known for taking on trends that are popular in other countries and bringing those trends to their store.

Another major difference is that you will see Mister Donuts collaborating with popular pop groups, in this case, with the pop group E-Girls to promote their line of boba drinks.

While boba has been popular in other countries for well over a decade, in Japan, the trend has exploded. And they also sell snow ice as well!

And often you see CM (Commercials) that make you say…WTF? And grabs your attention!

So, how do you purchase a donut as Mister Donut? Unlike America, where a lot of the donuts are kept behind glass and you tell the cashier what you want. Many bakeries, including Mister Donut, you grab a tray to set your donuts and tongs. You then go to the cashier who will then bag your donuts if it’s too go.

They will ask you if you have a points card and you can tell them “no”. Unless you really do have one!