Japan considers 10 consecutive days off around crown prince's succession

I'm glad to be here and to witness this historic event. Now Golden Week will become Golden Fortnight, wooo hooo!

Guess what, that 10 days off will only be for "company" types. Those who work in the service industry and lower paying positions will never see a 10 day holiday!

@Yubaru - Guess what, that 10 days off will only be for "company" types. Those who work in the service industry and lower paying positions will never see a 10 day holiday!

You forgot to mention schools. I'll be getting my ten days off. :D

Sounds nice....amazing how similar their faces are. I guess I noticed this before but not to this extent. I always felt Emperor Akihito and his wife both had very calm and kind faces.

I wish they would let him "retire" a year earlier and allow the couple to live out their days peacefully and privately.

I wish they would let him "retire" a year earlier and allow the couple to live out their days peacefully and privately.

That would be too easy, and so very "un" Japanese

I'm with you Tokyo-Engr, and I've always thought the Empress seemed very regal compared to some.

I very much doubt most people would actually get ten days off.

They should definitely make May 1 a holiday every year thus making this a 10 day holiday (or slightly shorter) permanently.

I'm also for keeping Akihito's Bday on Dec 23 a holiday. They should make Xmas a holiday, too, forcing the Japanese govt. by law, to make the 24th a holiday, too.

It's important to celebrate more.

Damn, that’s gonna be the mother of all holidays, a super long GW. Definitely a good idea!

Just be happy for the kids. Whether you get your days off or not.

Just be happy for the kids. Whether you get your days off or not.

Sorry I meant kids in general. Not yours or mine. Kids just love surprise holidays that’s all.

get on with it already!

I bet flights on those dates are already booked out, or they are 5x the normal price.

Nice idea but just don't see it happening, my wife and I have both had to go to work in the middle of Golden week. Been asked to work extra to make up for our time off ie Sunday's. Like premium Friday's yet to meet anyone who has got even one premium Friday let alone a 10 day holiday.

Japan is considering having 10 consecutive days off from April 27 to May 6 in 2019 to coincide with Crown Prince Naruhito's succession to the throne on May 1, government sources said Wednesday.

An excellent idea. whether they actually do it is a different story

Is there any precedent for a succession day becoming a national holiday, i.e., a holiday repeated every year?Aren't the Emperor-related national holidays birthdays?

If May 1 is made a national holiday, May 3 is already a national holiday, so May 2 will also effectively become an automatic holiday from now on. April 30 will also be the same. So this is not just in 2019, it will be in many years after.

For this reason, I doubt May 1 will become a national (i.e., annual) holiday. It will be a one-off holiday only.

Unless you have a cushy job in a town hall somewhere, we don't need more national holidays. We need workers' rights to allow people to take the holidays they have. Envy/misanthropy from coworkers is also a big problem.

This 10 days off probably only for government bureaucrats. Any commercial company cannot afford shut it down for that long

Who in Japan takes a straight 10 day holiday?

nobody I know that's for sure

Yeah, two weeks straight. That's amazing.

If it's a holiday, then I'm all for it! Watch those airline ticket prices shoot up even more, and for a longer period.

They’ll whittle it down to an extra afternoon off

Brilliant news! I knew there was a use for a royal family even in the 21st century. Just one thing though: can we please have a royal succession every year and two weeks off work?

Any excuse for government people to take more time off. No wonder, many want to work for the government.

Let's hope the Emperor lives long enough to see this succession. It' disgraceful how long the Imperial Household Agency and the Government have drawn out his simple request to abdicate, which most people in the country would wish to see happen soon.

I’m glad to witness the beginning of a new. But until now Akihito’ s birth day is December 23 a holiday. I think that the day is Xmas holiday when I was young. So I’m sad the day is not public holiday. Anyway 10 days off is just be happy for the kids. All of the parent will be very hard a super long GW.

Ten Consecutive Days Off.... Rome fell when the number of declared holidays exceeded workdays.

They'll never do it. At BEST it'll be "optional 10-days off" with big companies giving one or two days off to employees, and other companies saying "shouganai" and insisting people work overtime instead.

Any excuse for government people to take more time off. No wonder, many want to work for the government

The politicians take plenty of time off. Japanese bureaucrats are as overworked as most from what I can gather. We dealt with a guy from one Japanese ministry who burst into laughter when we asked him if his staff were taking advantage of Premium Friday.

Those who work in the service industry and lower paying positions will never see a 10 day holiday!

Could you imagine if the service industry was to take off while the Monday to Friday industry is off too? Ten days with hotels, restaurants, theme parks, bars, everything closed.

As if there aren’t enough meaningless holidays in this country already.

If I get a holiday in my hospital, the next day I have double work. Ten days?

This is going to be good. Tahiti here I come!

When the Emperor abdicates will he become a commoner? or will he still be part of the royal house hold? what will his status be?

I find that there are many holidays in Japan, and basically every month there are public holidays, even if it's just one day I think it's happy for the working people. But I think it's the students who are most happy. This should be the first time in Japan's history that the emperor has handed over to the next successor

As if there aren’t enough meaningless holidays in this country already.

Maybe. Maybe not.

If it is irksome for some, they can always chose to work from home on such days, catching up on deadlines, projects etc.

Good news for the rest of us, mind.

Who in Japan takes a straight 10 day holiday? nobody I know that's for sure

You have to be kidding, right? Typically, and it's just within the past 15 to 20 years, the entire country shut down over New Years. Plenty of folks have off from around the 26th of December to January 3rd or 4th. And if it includes or wraps around a couple of weekends, it's longer.

In my work holidays never affected me, it just makes it impossible for me to get any business done. Anyway, good for some people, so I'm good with it.

Hopefully airfares for these dates don't go too much through the roof at this announcement so that the people with the time off can enjoy some travel.