The beloved grandfather of fried chicken finally gets to rest his feet after standing for decades in Japan.

When KFC first arrived in Japan in the 1970s, the concept of fast food and fried chicken was still relatively foreign. There wasn’t any mascot at first, but when a Japanese KFC executive laid eyes on a statue of Colonel Sanders at a Canadian store event, he thought it a fantastic notion and brought the idea back to Japan.

The standing model of the venerable gentleman has been in Japan since then, even recently welcoming customers to partake in an awesome all-you-can-eat fried chicken offering.

▼ The love of fried chicken transcends culture, language, and belt buckles.

But now, 48 years after his Japan debut, KFC Japan has finally decided to pay respects to Colonel Sanders by letting his statue sit down on a bench. Some other countries may have long gotten sitting models, but apparently in Japan even plastic mascots work overtime.

Measuring 126 x 60 x 92 centimeters (50 x 24 x 36 inches), the sitting Colonel Sanders is now decorating branches located in Tokyo Dome City LaQua, Saitama’s LaLaport Shin Misato, and Sendai Nagamachi’s The Mall. More will be installed at stores in Osaka Expocity and the Yokohama headquarters of KFC Japan.

The company has also asked netizens to help name the new statue, and the winner will receive a one-year supply of delicious KFC chicken.

▼ “It’s About Time They Gave Me a Seat Colonel”, perhaps?
(Translation below)

“We were joking when we said that Colonel Sanders would be stopping his standing statues. The sitting version has now arrived. It doesn’t have a name yet, and so we’d like to look for a good one. Please tweet your name and your proposal with the hashtag #なんとかカーネル We’ll present one winner with a year of original fried chicken.”

Japanese netizens quickly went to work with names:

“The Sitting-in-the-Center Colonel.”
“The Colonel That’s About to Stand.”
“Since it’s his 48th year standing, I’ll call him KFC48.”
“The Lazy Colonel.”
“The Having-Difficulty-Standing Colonel.”

Japanese children and their families have much to look forward to when visiting KFC stores, as catching a glimpse of a sitting Colonel is a rare sight in the country. On the flip side, it also means that there’ll be more versions of terrifying sights awaiting the unwary on their way home.

Source: Livedoor News, Twitter/@KFC_jp via Otakomu
Featured image: Twitter/@KFC_jp
Insert image: Pakutaso