Tarto in Japan

I've been working for six months and just received my first paid vacations. Seen from abroad, Japan seems to be a country that has very few vacation days, which people usually don't even take. But does it match the reality?

As a matter of fact, Japanese people have...20 days of paid vacations per year! This is far from the usual cliché and while not as many as in France, it's still more than in the USA for instance.

On top of that, there are three official vacation periods: golden week, obon (festival of the dead) and the New Year, but then the exact rules vary each year and with the company. Here's what it looks like in my case and this year:

• golden week: 3 fixed days, april 30th as well as may 5th (yep, today!) and 6th
• obon: 3 days to choose freely within a 2-month range
• New Year: 7 fixed days, last year it was from december 28th to january 6th

Adding up those numbers already makes a nice total but wait, there's more: there are also about 15 national holidays that one gets no matter what. What I mean is, in case one of those days falls on a saturday or a sunday, it is reported to the next monday. The actual rules are trickier but you get the idea.

So, not bad in the end! The reality comes off as far from the one-week stereotype! However, if that cliché exists, then there has to some kind of reason behind. And indeed, everybody knows about the Japanese tourists who travel across the globe for 4 or 5 days, visiting as many places as they possibly can in such a short amount of time.

So what is the explanation to what seems like a paradox? It's very simple actually: first, it is not socially accepted to take too many vacations at once, and "too many" in this context means...one week! Yes, you read it right. The underlying idea is that not being at the office puts additional work on one's colleagues and thus cannot be extended too much. This is the reason why Japanese people usually make very short trips, and instead take one day off every now and then. Secondly, and for the same reason, there are many people who do not take all their vacation days...

The whole thing is also amplified by the fact that official vacation periods happen at the same dates for most companies. Consequently, travel prices shoot the roof, 25-kilometer traffic jams are frequent and hotels and stuff are overcrowded. My advice for potential travelers: avoid those periods at all cost or book well ahead...

As far as I'm concerned, I think I'm on the lucky side, as my company seems much more lenient than average. For example, when I went to France last month, my boss spontaneously offered me to take a week off to stay longer!...I just love him!...