Tag: Golden Week

Happy Golden Week 2025

Happy Golden Week to readers!

The first week of May in Japan has an interesting phenomenon in the modern calendar called Golden Week (gōruden uīku, ゴールデンウィーク): a series of national holidays that line up very closely. Thus, people often take vacations at this time (a rarity in Japanese business culture), and enjoy the fine weather before the monsoon comes. I wrote about Golden Week in more detail here.

You can see on our home calendar how the holidays (in red) line up:

My sister-in-law in Japan often takes this time off, as do many other Japanese business and white-collar workers. It may be the longest vacation they take in the year, apart from Japanese New Year.

As part of Golden Week, Childrens Day, or Kodomo no Hi (子供の日) also takes place every May 5th. I’ve written about that as well. We have taken out our usual yoroi armor display:

The Pokemon toys and dragons are just my son’s toys (he should clean up more 😋).

I am not sure if we can get kashiwa-mochi this year, as Japanese goods are getting harder and harder to obtain lately, and our schedule is chaotic this week anyway, so I am not sure exactly how we will celebrate. I do know that we will go see the Minecraft movie for a third time in theaters, though. My son and I really enjoy it, and it’s nice to see all the kids yelling certain parts of the dialogue in unison.

I wish I could post more, but as alluded to earlier, I will be away for about a week, and haven’t been able to write more due to work and other competing priorities. However, I hope you all have a terrific Golden Week, and can enjoy the weather in some way. I have other great content coming up, both historical and Buddhist, so please stay tuned, and take care!

P.S. Golden Week also serves as a reminder that what many modern workers need isn’t just equitable pay, but also time off. Happy May Day! ✊🏼

Golden Week in Japan

We all need a break sometimes. My coworkers in the EU often take time off in August, while I usually take part of the summer of with the family to see relatives in Japan. My company is a Japanese company so per tradition we also get the last week of the year off, ostensibly for New Year’s.

Japan is a place not known for vacations though. Office workers take long hours, and often shy away from taking personal time. Sure, they have personal time by law, but pressure from office culture tends to limit this.1

Thus, many people take time off during Golden Week (gōruden uīku, ゴールデンウィーク). Golden Week is a series of small nations holidays, each minor on its own, but appear on the same week, so people often use this as a reason to take time off.

The holidays in question are (source Wikipedia):

  • Showa Day (昭和の日, shōwa no hi) – a memorial to the late Showa Emperor (Hirohito). This holiday is observed on April 29th.
  • Constitution Day (憲法記念日, kenpō kinenbi) – a day to commemorate the modern constitution (kenpō) of Japan, which was original designed by US Occupation forces in 1946, but includes some novelties and innovations that the US Constitution lacks (explicit rights for women) as well as its renunciation of war.2 Observed on May 3rd.
  • Greenery Day (みどりの日, midori no hi) – this holiday ostensibly is a day to reflect on nature and such, but originally was celebrated as the birthday of the aforementioned Showa Emperor, who also happened to love plants as a hobby. It was also renamed following the ascension of his son, the Heisei Emperor. The significance of the late Showa emperor’s birthday has lessened over time anyway and the general appreciation of nature has taken over. Observed on May 4th.3
  • Children’s Day (子供の日, kodomo no hi) – I’ve touched on this holiday before. It is observed on May 5th, and is probably the most important.

You can see three of them listed on the calendar above, which we have at home.

Vacation travel soars this week, and congestion is everywhere. Sometimes other holidays which float around can further extend Golden Week up to 10 days long. It is for many Japanese workers, the longest week off they will enjoy in the year.

Whether you are in Japan, or overseas, hopefully you can catch some rest this time of year and enjoy the weather!

P.S. Tofugu has a great article on Golden Week too.

1 My sister in law, who is unmarried and works in the banking sector, had to take a lot of time off to care for her mother before she passed away. So people do take time off, but not always for leisure.

2 It replaces the 19th century, militaristic Constitution based on the Prussian model, which gave considerable power to the Emperor and made him sole authority of the military (they didn’t answer to the Cabinet). Check out this fun video series to learn more about Prussia, especially under Frederick the Great. While in college, I attended a lecture by the US Army secretary who helped draft the part of the constitution granting equal rights to women. She was a pretty amazing lady who dealt with a monumental task.

3 Of course, May the Fourth is important around here too. 😉