Japan Holiday Plan Not Going Far

As a recession-busting idea, it sounds deceptively easy: Move the dates of four national holidays to give overworked Japanese some three-day weekends and a chance to spend some of their huge stockpile of savings.

Advocates say switching the dates would cost nothing, delight the public and prompt about $11 billion worth of leisure and tourism spending. Although modest compared to the record $124-billion economic stimulus package that Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto announced recently, it is the kind of consumption-boosting measure that the U.S. and other nations have been begging Tokyo to implement since the Asian economic crisis began last summer.

But change does not come easily in Japan, even amid what Hashimoto has called the worst economic crisis of the postwar era. The holiday proposal is deadlocked in parliament, where it is a hostage to tradition, inertia and election-year politics.

While Japan is rich in holidays devoted to such virtues as greenery, oceans, equinoxes and children, long vacations are still seen as a dangerous indulgence, especially in these tough times.

The latest holiday squabble began in March, when a coalition of opposition lawmakers introduced a bill to reschedule four of Japan’s 15 national holidays to fall on Mondays.

The proposal, now known as the “Happy Monday” idea, would not guarantee three-day weekends four times a year for all Japanese because some companies require employees to work half a day on Saturdays, and all public schools have classes every other Saturday morning.

But even a 2 1/2-day weekend would allow more people to travel in Japan, presumably spending money on transportation, food, lodging and amusements, said a spokesman for the Japan Travel Bureau, the country’s largest travel agency.

“I don’t think we will spend much more money just because we have more long weekends,” said Masanori Sato, 51, a bookkeeper for a small company. “But it will allow people like us, who work hard, to relax more and live like normal human beings.”

The opposition wants four Happy Mondays: Coming of Age Day, to honor those who, at age 20, reach adulthood; Marine Day, a holiday adopted in 1996 to encourage appreciation of the ocean; Respect for the Aged Day; and Health-Sports Day, which was established to commemorate the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The Transportation Ministry estimates that consumer spending will increase by $11 billion if all four fall on a Monday instead of on set dates.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party was initially willing to reschedule two holidays, Coming of Age Day and Respect for the Aged Day, despite resistance from those who believe that changing the dates will deprive the holidays of meaning. But the party decided to keep Sept. 15 as Respect for the Aged Day after the Japan Federation of Senior Citizens’ Clubs objected to any tampering.

Itoko Koguchi, 84, said she favors changing the date for Respect for the Aged Day if it would enable her to see more of her busy relatives.

“My family would probably come visit me more often, and I would like that,” Koguchi said. Most of her friends look forward to the holiday because some local governments distribute gifts and food to the elderly.