Public holidays, a government-mandated day off for everyone, are causing suffering to Japanese people… Psychiatrist warns: “Stress increases over long holidays.” This is putting the cart before the horse | PRESIDENT WOMAN Online

Golden Week is a long holiday unique to Japan that combines holidays. Masanori Nishida, a psychiatrist and professor at Waseda University, said, “Japan has the highest number of public holidays in the world, but it is difficult to take flexible days off, such as annual leave.”The culture of not being able to take a day off unless everyone is together at the same time” It is having a negative impact on health.”

Why Japan doesn’t feel rested even though there are many holidays

After the May holidays, there will be no national holidays for a while until Marine Day on July 15th. When written like this, it may seem that Japan does not have many public holidays, but Japan has 16 public holidays per year as stipulated by the National Holidays Act. Public holidays are celebrated on the 8th in the United Kingdom, on the 9th in Germany, France, and Italy, and on the 12th in the United States, but in Japan they are celebrated on the 16th, the most of any G7 member country. Substitute holidays, which ensure the number of public holidays, is also a system unique to Japan.

However, I think there are actually very few people who feel satisfied with having so many holidays. One of the reasons may be the low utilization rate of paid and annual leave. According to a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average paid leave utilization rate in Japan in FY2020 was 56.6%, and for businesses with a small number of employees, between 30 and 99, the rate drops to 51.2%. This is far from Singapore’s 93% and Germany’s 90% (survey by Expedia, 2023).

The reason why satisfaction and happiness levels have not increased is largely due to the fact that, even though we have the highest number of public holidays in the world, it is difficult to take flexible time off, such as annual leave.In other words, it is largely due to the culture that “you can’t take a day off unless everyone is together at the same time.” I realize this again around the May holidays.

The Japanese culture of resting all at once is beginning to have a negative impact on the people’s mental health and well-being (a state of being happy and fulfilled physically, mentally, and socially), and is causing institutional fatigue. think.

Amazing effects of travel

Needless to say, the long holidays are the travel season. Just because you can’t go on a trip doesn’t necessarily mean you’re suffering from mental illness or mental health issues. However, traveling is not only a refreshing change of pace, but also an important activity that enhances our well-being (Dsouza & Shetty, 2024). If you think about the times when you couldn’t travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, you’ll understand. Some research has suggested that tourism experiences may prevent or slow the progression of dementia (Wen et al., 2022).

In this regard, activities that aim to restore and improve health through travel and reduce health risks through travel are attracting attention, and are called health tourism. It has also been proposed that by allowing tourists to experience happiness, it may also promote their health (Vada et al., 2020). Travel is not a must-have for survival like food and shelter, as seen by the influx of tourists after the coronavirus pandemic, but it is an essential element for mental health and well-being.