I saw this giant decoration in a Sendai shopping arcade. Presumably having no Thanksgiving holiday as a start date means a couple extra weeks of Xmas decorations. Now to me this looks a lot like Buddha dressed up as Santa Claus but I don't know.
A friend who happened to be carrying her own Chinese knockoff toy with half the features of Mickey Mouse and Astro Boy in combined into one hybrid character disagreed as to the Buddha I.D. but couldn't explain what was going on here. So at the very least, he's a very meditative Asian department store Santa.
Nick Kent is a New York based artist who works with electronic media and is an occasional pop culture pundit.