A month of Mondays
Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died in office of a stroke on May 14, 2000, introduced the “Happy Monday” law whose purpose was to streamline the Japanese calendar by pushing more national public holidays that used to fall in mid-week to the nearest Monday, thereby creating more 3-day weekends and, hopefully, encouraging more consumer spending by giving people longer, more consistent days off. Japan has a lot of national public holidays. Currently, we are in the midst of a four-week spread in September-October with four consecutive Monday holidays in Japan.
Monday, September 17 = keiro no hi, Respect for the Elderly Day
Monday, September 24 = shubun no hi, Autumn Equinox Day
Monday, October 1st = tomin no hi, Tokyo Civic Holiday
Monday, October 8 = taiku no hi, Sports Day (to commemorate the opening of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games)
Holidays are fine and all, but all these Monday holidays are eating into my working hours and my income. I’m a contract worker, not a salaried worker. I’m paid only for the hours that I work. It’s good in the sense that I have a lot of freedom and I can fill my time with other things. It’s bad in the sense that there is no s job security whatsoever and holidays are likely to impinge on income.