MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
国民の祝日
Japan’s National Holidays Act currently names sixteen holidays. Their dates follow fixed dates, designated Mondays or the equinox calendar. Separate provisions create substitute holidays and holidays between two national holidays.
New Year’s Day is 1 January; National Foundation Day, 11 February; the Emperor’s Birthday, 23 February; Shōwa Day, 29 April; Constitution Memorial Day, 3 May; Greenery Day, 4 May; Children’s Day, 5 May; Mountain Day, 11 August; Culture Day, 3 November; and Labour Thanksgiving Day, 23 November. The Act gives each a stated purpose without prescribing every associated activity.
Coming of Age Day is the second Monday in January; Marine Day the third Monday in July; Respect for the Aged Day the third Monday in September; and Sports Day the second Monday in October. Their numbered dates change each year. Sports Day has used the Japanese name Supōtsu no Hi since 2020, replacing Taiiku no Hi.
The Act specifies the equinox days without fixing permanent month-and-day dates. Each February, the National Astronomical Observatory announces the following year’s dates through the official calendar almanac in the government gazette. The Cabinet Office presents them in its annual table: the vernal equinox falls on 20 March in 2026 and 21 March in 2027.
Predictions for more distant years can be calculated, but they are different from the following year’s formal announcement. Planning for a particular year calls for its published calendar.
Constitution Memorial Day falls on Sunday, 3 May, in 2026. That triggers substitution. The search then passes 4 May, already Greenery Day, and 5 May, already Children’s Day. The first following date that is not a national holiday is 6 May, which becomes the additional holiday.
Sunday is the trigger in Article 3(2), rather than any weekend day. A national holiday falling only on Saturday does not itself activate this provision. The rule seeks the next date that is not a national holiday, rather than defining the next working day for every employer.
In 2026, Respect for the Aged Day is 21 September and Autumnal Equinox Day is 23 September. The intervening date, 22 September, has no separate name among the sixteen holidays. Its two neighbours are national holidays, so Article 3(3) makes it a holiday. No Sunday trigger is needed and no named holiday moves.
A day off created by these provisions differs from a named holiday under Article 2. When 4 May became Greenery Day in 2007, it acquired its own statutory name and purpose.
New Year’s Day celebrates the start of the year. Coming of Age Day encourages young people who recognize their adulthood to live independently. Children’s Day respects children’s individuality and happiness and also thanks mothers; it is not limited to boys. Respect for the Aged Day honours older people’s long service to society and celebrates longevity.
Sports Day includes enjoyment of sport, respect for others and a healthy, active society. Labour Thanksgiving Day honours work, celebrates production and promotes mutual gratitude. These statutory purposes do not prescribe one household ceremony.
Vernal Equinox Day celebrates nature and living things; Autumnal Equinox Day honours ancestors and remembers the dead. Their dates share an astronomical basis, but their statutory purposes differ. Greenery Day concerns closeness to nature and gratitude for its benefits. Marine Day gives thanks for the sea and seeks the prosperity of maritime Japan; Mountain Day provides an opportunity to appreciate mountains and their benefits.
National Foundation Day recalls the nation’s founding and fosters love of country; a Cabinet Order sets its date as 11 February. The Emperor’s Birthday celebrates the reigning emperor’s birthday. Shōwa Day looks back on the era’s upheaval and reconstruction and considers the country’s future.
Constitution Memorial Day marks the Constitution’s coming into effect. Culture Day concerns freedom, peace and cultural development. The Constitution was promulgated on 3 November 1946 and took effect on 3 May 1947. Those connections do not make the two holidays identical in purpose.
Obon, seasonal observances and local festivals can affect community, school and business schedules without becoming national holidays under this Act. New Year closures may combine several kinds of days off. An individual institution’s opening calendar answers a different question from the national list.
The Act designates national holidays as holidays, while shops, hospitals and transport services may operate under different arrangements. The cultural calendar, an employee’s schedule and service availability need to be checked separately. A national date list cannot establish a particular workplace’s rota.
The Act was promulgated and took effect on 20 July 1948 with nine named holidays. An earlier imperial ordinance had made eleven imperial and other observances holidays. After the new Constitution came into force, the government proposed resetting the calendar by Cabinet Order. The Diet argued that a matter so closely connected to public life and feeling should be decided by Parliament; the government withdrew that approach.
Committees in both chambers selected and discussed the days, while newspapers, radio and a survey solicited public views. Compatibility with the new Constitution and broad public understanding and participation were stated selection criteria. The change reorganized authority and commemorative purpose, as well as the list.
A 1966 amendment added National Foundation Day, Respect for the Aged Day and the former Health and Sports Day. Substitute holidays entered the Act in 1973 and the intervening-day rule in 1985. From 2007, substitution extended to the nearest following non-national-holiday. Marine Day took effect in 1996 and Mountain Day in 2016.
Imperial ceremonies have occasioned holidays under special legislation. Some holidays also moved in 2020 and 2021 in connection with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Such exceptions are not an annually repeating rule; the Cabinet Office’s year-specific table distinguishes them from ordinary arrangements.
The history of 29 April separates keeping a date from preserving a purpose. In the 1948 Act it was the Shōwa emperor’s birthday. With the imperial succession in 1989, the reigning emperor’s birthday moved to 23 December and 29 April became Greenery Day, directed towards nature. In 2007 it became Shōwa Day, commemorating an era; Greenery Day moved to 4 May.
The reigning emperor’s birthday later moved to 23 February. Dates, names and objects of commemoration are connected, but are not an unchanged holiday automatically carried forward. Sports Day’s current name, used since 2020, likewise accompanies a stated statutory purpose.
Coming of Age Day and the former Health and Sports Day moved to designated Mondays in 2000; Marine Day and Respect for the Aged Day followed in 2003. The Cabinet Office explains the Coming of Age Day change as creating consecutive holidays and improving opportunities for leisure.
For someone already off on Saturdays and Sundays, Monday, 12 January 2026, joins 10–11 January to make a three-day break. This illustrates the effect for that schedule; it does not guarantee a three-day weekend across every industry or create a substitute for every Saturday holiday.
3 May is Sunday; 4 and 5 May are already national holidays, making 6 May the first following non-national-holiday.
No. The intervening-day rule applies because both neighbours of 22 September are national holidays; no Sunday is required.
No. Article 3(2) is triggered by a national holiday on Sunday.
No. The spring day concerns nature and living things, while the autumn day remembers ancestors and the dead.
No. Its purpose includes all children’s individuality and happiness, and gratitude to mothers.
No. It has been the Emperor’s Birthday, Greenery Day and Shōwa Day, with different commemorative purposes.
The National Astronomical Observatory announces them each February in the official calendar almanac published in the government gazette.
The combination depends on already having Saturday and Sunday off; workplaces and services follow their own schedules.