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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Japan

The list of Japan bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

 © 1989-2008 Alter Ego Services

15 May 2005 (Kyodo News) The Japanese Diet, on Friday, enacted a law to rename the Greenery Day national holiday after the reign of the late Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Japan public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: Official public holidays in Japan are regulated by the The Public Holiday Law of 1948 (as amended in 1999 and 2007) which establishes the list of official public holidays in Japan. • Weekend and Bridge Public Holidays: When a public holiday falls on a Sunday, then that holiday is moved to the next day. Also when a working day is sandwiched between two public holidays, then that day also becomes a holiday. • Government office workers are off from Dec. 29 to Jan. 3. Banks are closed from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3. • Starting in 2007: Showa Day will be on April 29, and Greenery Day will be moved to May 4. Following his death in 1989, the holiday marking Hirohito's birthday was renamed Greenery Day - an oblique reference to the late emperor's passion for plants, but one which avoided using his name. The re-named Showa Day is a more direct reference to the emperor's era . • Also starting in 2007, new rules have been implemented creating infrequent but recurring bridge public holidays. No official name has been given to these bridge public holidays by the Japanese government. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Bank of Japan (Japan central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Japan, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world. Aft=Afternoon, Arm=Armenian, Bah=Bahai, Bnk=Banks and most financial institutions, Bud=Buddhist, Cat=Catholic, Chr=Christian, Cop=Coptic, Eve=Evening, Gov=Government services and civil servants, Hin=Hindu, Jew=Jewish, Lin=Linguistic or ethnic groups, Mor=Morning, Mun=Municipal, Mus=Muslim, Orth=Orthodox, Othr=Miscellaneous partial observances (usually described in the Additional Information section of this page), Prt=Protestant, Reg=Regional, Rel=Other Religion, Sch=Schools and universities, Sik=Sikh.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Japan that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Solar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, equinoxes, solstices, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict solar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Japan are based on the geographical location of Tokyo (latitude 35,6°N, longitude 139,8°E, GMT+9,0 hours, no summer time rules). Note that many countries in South-East Asia are progressively changing the recurrence rule of some of their lunar/solar holidays to rules based on fixed dates of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Therefore, while the dates predicted above for 2009 and beyond are currently technically correct, the rules of these holidays may change in the next few years. For more details on lunar and solar holidays, see the Lunisolar Footnotes.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Japan, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Japan, before planning any trip to Japan. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.