Following Japanese anime gives one a vague idea of which Western holidays and traditions caught on in Japan. For example, you could draw up an entire list of best Christmas and Valentine’s Day episodes (my 2022 anime series of the year, Teasing Master Takagi-san, featured both). Christmas Eve, which is apparently something of a date night in Japan, appears as well. Valentine’s Day spawned a unique Japanese commercial occasion, White Day (see our Justin & Justina White Day dialogue). Halloween seems to be less popular, although it makes a notable appearance in the classic visual novel, Umineko When They Cry (see my link to a red truth guide). I had never thought much about April Fools Day in anime. The only reference that I can come up with off the top of my head comes from the second season of Teasing Master Takagi-san, which aired in 2019 (note: I have seen many series over the last 15-or-so-years, so I emphasize “off the top of my head”). From a quick survey, it seems that the most common anime April Fools jokes may come from anime studios on Twitter. According to a March 31, 2017 article from the Japan Times titled For most Japanese, April Fools’ Day still no joke, there is a good reason that I recall no April Fools references in Japanese anime, manga, novels, or games…
In its March 25 Saturday supplement, the Asahi Shimbun showed the results of a survey of 1,595 Japanese adults, which asked ‘Have you ever been the butt of an April Fools’ gag?’ Only 17% gave positive replies. It also asked them, ‘Have you yourself ever played an April Fool’s gag on someone?’ The positive replies were 20%, with the rest saying no.
The article makes clear that April Fools is not unheard of in Japan; it is just not particularly popular. For whatever it is worth, I have never been the victim of an April Fools gag (lest we count my reading April Fools gags in 1999 [see article] and 2001 [see article] video game magazines). While some people apparently indulge in April Fools in Japan, it does not appear to be so many as to have become a prominent feature of the anime-subset of Japanese media. Americans were similarly unsuccessful in making Thanksgiving a big deal in Japan, certainly less so than in the Philippines.