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McDonald’s Japan officially changes its mascot’s name…to Ronald McDonald

Casey Baseel Oct 3, 2026
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Yep, that’s actually a change for McDonald’s Japan.

On October 1, McDonald’s Japan shocked fans with a surprise announcement that they’re changing the name of the chain’s mascot. Some might say it’s crazy to throw away decades of name recognition for such a widely recognized spokescharacter, but McDonald’s Japan feels like the time is right, and posted on its official Twitter account that that the famous clown decked out in the company’s red and yellow colors will, from now on, be known as Ronald McDonald.

▼ 今日からロナルド = “From today, I’m Ronald.”

ドナルド、どーなるの？ pic.twitter.com/y97RsfnVTH

— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) October 1, 2026

To many of our readers, this might seem like old news. Like, 63-year-old news, since 1963 was the year when McDonald’s friendly clown character made his debut in U.S. TV commercials for the fast food chain, and in which people clearly said his name was Ronald McDonald.

However, ever since Japan’s first McDonald’s opened in 1971, he’s been known here as “Donald McDonald.”

It’s not exactly clear why Ronald got a new leading consonant for his name while crossing the Pacific. One theory is that Den Fujita, the Japanese businessman who established McDonald’s Japan, thought that “Ronald” would be difficult for Japanese people to pronounce. However, the Japanese language has both “ro” and “do” sounds, and “ro” isn’t at all a rare sound within Japanese names or vocabulary, so it’s not a particularly difficult sound for native Japanese speakers to make. Another possible explanation that’s been posited online is that the change to Donald was made to avoid confusion with Ranald MacDonald, who in 1848 became the first native English speaker to teach the language in Japan. Despite the important role he played in the country’s history, though, Ranald MacDonald is far from a household name in Japan, and as much as modern-day McDonald’s Japan likes wordplay, it seems doubtful that they’d feel compelled to rename their mascot to cater the sensibilities of linguistics enthusiasts.

▼ An anime-style Donald McDonald, showing off his “Donald magic” powers. Sadly, the animation doesn’t seem to have been produced by Studio Pierrot (yes, I do cater to the sensibilities of linguistics enthusiasts).

But whatever the reason, back in 1971 McDonald’s Japan said hey, we like this clown character you’ve created, but we’re gonna rename him Donald, OK? And perhaps because no one knew the character was going to stick around this long, or because the fast food industry was still young enough that chains weren’t thinking about global branding synergy, Ronald became Donald in Japan, until McDonald’s Japan’s announcement that he’s now Ronald.

The character’s “From today, I’m Ronald” tweet has drawn comments such as:

“Biggest shock of the year.”
“Naw, dude you’ve been Ronald since a long time ago.”
“They’re not renaming him Ronald McRonald, are they?”
“Now people are gonna be able to tell how old you are if you say ‘You know, he used to be called ‘Donald.’”
“It’s going to take me some time to get used to this.”
“I mean, we’re all going to keep on calling him ‘Donald,’ right?”
“I think he didn’t want to have the same first name as Trump.”
“People in Japan know him as Donald, so they should have kept it like it was. There’s no need to go out of the way and match his name in other countries.”

Regarding the last two comments, though McDonald’s Japan did, a very long time ago, print “Donald Trump” cards (“trump” being what Western-style playing cards are called in Japan) featuring their mascot character, when the current U.S. president comes up in conversation in Japan, his first name is rarely used, so it’s unlikely that Donald McDonald’s name was changed to avoid association with Donald Trump.

On the other hand, McDonald’s Japan apparently does think there’s a good reason for matching the name used for the character in other countries, and it’s not necessarily to sell more burgers. On the same day that McDonald’s Japan announced that their mascot’s name is now Ronald, the Donald McDonald House Japan charity organization said that it is renaming itself to Rondald McDonald House Japan, in order to more clearly convey its alignment with the goal of helping children battling illnesses or other medical conditions shared by the many Rondald McDonald House divisions in other countries.

▼ Rondald McDonald House Japan announcing its new name

日本にハウスができて、25年。
私たちは、新たな一歩を踏み出します。

名称やロゴは変わりますが、
病気と向き合う子どもとそのご家族の
「第二のわが家」としての使命は変わりません。

「#家族いっしょ」の力を信じて― #ロナルドマクドナルドハウスは、
これからも、支える家族を支え続けます。 pic.twitter.com/Wh0PxDOp8M

— 公益財団法人ロナルド・マクドナルド・ハウス・ジャパン (@dmhcj) October 1, 2026

As for McDonald’s Japan’s customers needing some time to get used to Ronald’s new name, we can relate, but we think they’ll come around eventually, especially as long as the chain doesn’t tinker too much with its tsukimi burger recipe.

Source: Oricon News via Yahoo! Japan News via Hachima Kiko, Twitter/@McDonaldsJapan
Top image: McDonald’s Japan
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