世論 What Japan Thinks

One of the Democratic Party of Japan’s good ideas from my point of view was to propose staggered holidays across the country rather than the current situation of all 120 million taking their May Golden Week holiday all at the same time. To see how this proposal was being received by the public, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted a survey into this topic.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 31st of October 2010 3,000 people selected at random from resident registers were approached to take part in a survey, and 1,953 people, or 65.1% agreed to a face-to-face interview. The sex breakdown was not reported.

Currently in Japan there is the Golden Week holiday over the end of April and the start of May when the vast majority of the public have a holiday, plus four public holidays are set to be on a particular Monday in a particular month. The proposal from the government is to split the country from north to south into five blocks and assign a week’s spring and autumn holiday period (the autumn holiday being new) to each block, and move the four Monday holidays to a fixed date and no longer make them public holidays.

I used to be very much in favour of this idea, but on reading a few opinions from other foreigners I’m a bit less keen on the idea, the reason being that the ideal situation would be to make easier to take holidays at one’s own convenience, just like most of the rest of the world. One benefit, however, would be an easing of traffic by spreading it over five weeks, and hopefully lower prices as hotels now have a ten week busy period rather than the current situation of just one week of complete overbooking, and the attendant increased money circulation from more people being able to take a holiday rather than just staying at home as they cannot afford to travel.

Research results

Q1: Do you already know that the government is currently studing staggering holiday periods? (Sample size=1,953)

Knew the details	35.1%
Knew the outline	41.6%
Knew neither	20.8%
Just don’t know	2.5%

Q2: Do you support or oppose staggering holiday periods? (Sample size=1,953)

Support (to SQ1)	11.7%
Support to some degree (to SQ1)	16.4%
Oppose to some degree (to SQ2)	26.4%
Oppose (to SQ2)	29.7%
Don’t know	15.8%

Q2SQ1: Why do you support staggering holiday periods? (Sample size=548, multiple answer)

Will lessen crowds at tourist spots, public transport, roads, etc	72.3%
Will be easier to take holidays	48.2%
Will stimulate the economy	42.5%
Will reduce hotel room fees	25.4%
Can get a new long holiday in autumn	16.4%
Other	1.3%
Don’t know	0.9%

Q2SQ2: Why do you oppose staggering holiday periods? (Sample size=1,096, multiple answer)

Holidays won’t match that of family, relatives, friends, etc	54.2%
As the whole country is not on holiday at the same time, holidays will disappear instead	44.3%
Used to the current system	34.9%
Will have an effect on the economy	29.6%
Opposed to commemorative days losing their public holiday	26.0%
Opposed to stretching holidays over five weeks	23.8%
Opposed to splitting into five blocks	23.7%
Rather than an extra week-long holiday, four long weekends are better	17.3%
Other	3.5%
Don’t know	1.0%