The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance.
However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of these days off to increase consumption and stimulate domestic demand. The amendment does not realize the potential for these holidays to boost various domestic industries, such as food, retail, leisure and tourism.
There were originally six three-day weekends this year, with two of them — the Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day — in October. Now that Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28 and the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou on Oct. 25 are to be recognized, there would be four three-day weekends in the short span of just 30 days — a serious disparity.
After the amendment passed its third reading, KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) asked whether some of the new holidays could be spread out into November, demonstrating the legislation was passed hastily and carelessly. The blue and white coalition is bringing back old holidays, aiming to use them as a tool to reap political benefits.
The issue with holidays lies not only in that they are lacking, but in that they are unevenly distributed. The distribution of three-day weekends is much more important than any individual day off.
A better approach would be to adopt a one-for-one system in which certain holidays are fixed to fall on Mondays. This would more adequately balance the scales of economic operations and holiday-related consumer spending, offsetting losses in overall economic output and mitigating any negative impacts.
As they are neither too long or too short, three-day weekends are well-suited to address the deficit in domestic tourism caused by the public’s strong preference for traveling abroad. The US and Japan have long had similar legislation in place that has proved quite effective, and Taiwan could easily follow their example.
The practice of shifting holidays to create three-day weekends began with the US’ 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act. Japan adopted similar regulations, known as the Happy Monday System. The purpose of the US act was to stimulate the US tourism industry by creating several longer weekends — some examples being that the third Monday of January each year is Martin Luther King Jr Day, which honors the civil rights leader, while the second Monday of October marks Columbus Day to commemorate the explorer’s discovery of the Americas.
The KMT asserted that Workers’ Day should be a national holiday for all sectors. The US observes its Labor Day on the first Monday of September each year. Last year’s Labor Day weekend saw airport security screenings across the US hit record highs, marking the busiest ever Labor Day holiday for airports in history. Businesses large and small seized the final wave of business opportunities before summer’s end — an excellent example of the overall benefits of three-day weekends.
Japan’s Happy Monday System, established in 1998, also moved a number of public holidays to Mondays to create several three-day weekends. This year, Japan has a total of nine holidays of three or more consecutive days, with five three-day weekends in the second half of the year alone.
The third Monday of July is Japan’s Marine Day, a holiday officially designated to commemorate Emperor Meiji’s return by ship after his voyage around the Tohoku region almost 150 years ago. The day highlights Japan’s spirit as a maritime nation surrounded by the sea, and the first country to establish a national holiday specifically dedicated to honoring the ocean.
After the implementation of the Happy Monday System, the holiday also serves to implement a three-day weekend in July, which previously had no holidays. Mountain Day was similarly added in early August, aligning with the Japanese Obon season and ensuring the two months of summer vacation each have a three-day weekend. This provides institutional incentives for Japanese, who prefer domestic tourism.
Taiwan’s minimum wage has increased for nine consecutive years. It is worth watching closely to see whether the addition of these five national holidays halts that momentum to give small and medium-sized enterprises some breathing room.
Chen Yung-chang is a freelance writer based in Taipei.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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