The Happy Monday System

On writing the previous post "Record number of centenarians on Respect for the Aged Day", I came across the term "the Happy Monday System" for the first time. It turns out the Happy Monday System was created between 1998 and 2001 to create three day weekends by moving public holiday dates around. The system has been likened to the "Uniform Monday Holiday Act" in America.

Basically, in order to create more three day weekends the government decided to fix the date of certain public holidays to fall on a Monday, rather than a fixed date annually. For example, Coming of Age Day, was a public holiday on January 15th annually until the 1998 revision of the National Holidays Law and the Happy Monday System. Under the Happy Monday System, since 2000, the Coming of Age Day is now on the second Monday of January annually.

The other national holiday that was moved to a Monday in 2000 was Sports Day. Then in 2003 two other holidays joined the Happy Monday System. They are Marine Day and the aforementioned Respect for the Aged Day. So now those four holidays are on Mondays, creating three day weekends for some, thanks to the Happy Monday System!