The Happy Monday System (ハッピーマンデー制度, Happī Mandē Seido?) refers to a set of modifications to Japanese law in 1998 and 2001 to move a number of public holidays in Japan to Mondays, creating a three-day weekend for those who normally have a five-day work week.
| Date | Moved to Monday | English name | Local name | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | No | New Year's Day | 元日 | Ganjitsu |
| 2nd Monday of January | Since 2000 | Coming of Age Day | 成人の日 | Seijin no hi |
| February 11 | No | National Foundation Day | 建国記念の日 | Kenkoku kinen no hi |
| March 20 or March 21 | No | Vernal Equinox Day | 春分の日 | Shunbun no hi |
| April 29 | No | Shōwa Day | 昭和の日 | Shōwa no hi |
| May 3 | No | Constitution Memorial Day | 憲法記念日 | Kenpō kinenbi |
| May 4 | No | Greenery Day | みどりの日 | Midori no hi |
| May 5 | No | Children's Day | 子供の日 | Kodomo no hi |
| 3rd Monday of July | Since 2003 | Marine Day | 海の日 | Umi no hi |
| 3rd Monday of September | Since 2003 | Respect for the Aged Day | 敬老の日 | Keirō no hi |
| September 23 or September 24 | No | Autumnal Equinox Day | 秋分の日 | Shūbun no hi |
| 2nd Monday of October | Since 2000 | Health and Sports Day | 体育の日 | Taiiku no hi |
| November 3 | No | Culture Day | 文化の日 | Bunka no hi |
| November 23 | No | Labour Thanksgiving Day | 勤労感謝の日 | Kinrō kansha no hi |
| December 23 | No | The Emperor's Birthday | 天皇誕生日 | Tennō tanjōbi |
Famous quotes containing the words happy, monday and/or system:
“One of the oddest features of western Christianized culture is its ready acceptance of the myth of the stable family and the happy marriage. We have been taught to accept the myth not as an heroic ideal, something good, brave, and nearly impossible to fulfil, but as the very fibre of normal life. Given most families and most marriages, the belief seems admirable but foolhardy.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“I said in my novel that the clergyman is a kind of human Sunday. Jones and I settled that my sister May was a kind of human Good Friday and Mrs. Bovill an Easter Monday or some other Bank Holiday.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“For us necessity is not as of old an image without us, with whom we can do warfare; it is a magic web woven through and through us, like that magnetic system of which modern science speaks, penetrating us with a network subtler than our subtlest nerves, yet bearing in it the central forces of the world.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)