For the emperor’s abdication on April 30, Japanese workers are to enjoy an unprecedented 10-day holiday as a rash of special days off combine with the traditional “Golden Week” next month, but not everyone is popping the champagne corks in famously workaholic Japan.
“To be honest, I don’t know how to spend the time when we are suddenly given 10 days of holidays,” 31-year-old finance worker Seishu Sato said. “If you want to go traveling, it’s going to be crowded everywhere and tour costs have surged... I might end up staying at my parents’ place.”
A survey by the Asahi Shimbun showed that 45 percent of Japanese “felt unhappy” about the long vacation, with only 35 percent saying they “felt happy.”
“I won’t be able to take days off. On the contrary, we’ll be super-busy,” 46-year-old pizzeria worker Takeru Jo said.
Others who have to work over the period complain about childcare.
“For parents in the service sector, the 10 days of holiday is a headache. After-school care, nurseries — everything is closed,” one disgruntled parent tweeted.
Many expect Tokyo and other large cities to empty as Japanese seize the rare opportunity for an overseas trip.
“Most of our tours for the holiday period were sold out last year,” said Hideki Wakamatsu, a spokesman for Nippon Travel Agency, adding that many others were on the waiting list.
Still, if people are curiously indifferent to the idea of extra holidays as a result of the emperor, the imperial family remains as popular as ever.
A poll by Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) found that almost no one would admit to a “feeling of antipathy” toward the emperor, with the vast majority saying they had a “positive feeling” or “respect.”
Only 22 percent voiced indifference in the NHK poll.
Open University of Japan politics professor Takeshi Hara said that much of this stemmed from the imperial couple’s “welfare-related activities.”
“Their attention to the elderly, the disabled and the victims of natural disasters — those ignored by politicians in the past three decades — has earned public support,” Hara said.
The fact that Emperor Akihito married his sweetheart, Michiko, “for love” — the first marriage for love in imperial history — has also boosted his standing, Hara said.
However, Hideto Tsuboi of the Kyoto-based International Research Center for Japanese Studies said that one of the main reasons for Akihito’s popularity lay in the fact that he was “conscious of the responsibility of the post-war generation” to reflect on Japan’s wartime atrocities.
On the 73rd anniversary of the end of World War II last year, Akihito reiterated “deep remorse” over the war and his continued wishes for peace.
While criticism of the emperor is virtually non-existent, there has been some opposition to the financing of some of the ceremonies surrounding the abdication and enthronement.
More than 200 Japanese citizens have filed a lawsuit against the government for planning to use taxpayers’ money to fund the ceremonies.
They say the ceremonies are religious in nature and funding them from the public purse breaks the constitutional principle separating religion and state.
They received unexpected backing from a member of the imperial household, Prince Akishino, the emperor’s youngest son, who is to become crown prince when his brother, Naruhito, ascends the throne.
Noting that one of the rituals “has a highly religious nature,” Akishino said: “I wonder if it is appropriate to finance this highly religious thing with state funds.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese