Golden Week National Holidays in Japan

The Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays. People usually take time off work duiring this busiest holidays. Japanese people are known to work very hard, but during the golden week, people arrange family vacation. Hawaii is one of the popular destinations for Japanese people during the golden week.

Break down of the golden week holidays:

April 29th Showa no hi (Showa Day): this was the birthday of former Emperor Showa.

May 3rd Kenpo Kinenbi (Constitution Day): This national holiday is to celebrate a new constitution which was laid out after the WW2.

May 4th Midori no Hi (Greenery Day): As the name says, people celebrate nature on this day.

May 5th: Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day): Even though it is called “children’s day”, Japanese people celebrate mainly boys on this day. People display samurai dolls in their homes, hang up carp streamers on this day.  People celebrate girls on March 3rd.

This concentrated nearly 1 week holidays give great opportunities for busy Japanese people to take the time off to relax, sightsee and reunite with friends and families. Companies take paid-time off during the Golden Week, and some companies do actually close. Two other holidays many Japanese people enjoy are New Year and Obon no hi (Bon festival) in August. But since the Golden Week gives nearly a 1 week vacation, many Japanese people go to Hawaii, Saipan and Guam or other cities in America. So tourist attractions in Japan get very crowded during this time. I didn’t dare to travel during the Golden Week, because airports and train stations get extremely crowded and packed with people trying to travel at the same time. So if you are planning to travel during this time, it is important to make a reservation in advance.