Overworking, Holiday and "Golden Week"

Just now I read one news that the French are opposing to decreace one public holiday. This is the most interesting news I read today. "but i am not amazed, it is the french state of mind", my French friend said. According to the news, France railway decided to overwork 1min 52sec per day instead of working one extra day. Overworking 1min 52sec per day!!? It is really nothing for me. Thousands of Japanese overworking for a few hours per day I guess. And what is worse, many of them are overworking without payment. It is of course illegal though, it is very common phenomenon in Japan... According to one website, some of the Japanese work without payment more than 80 hours per month including working on weekend. (Source Here /2003)

But for the French, even working one extra day (or 1'52 per day) can be a big problem. My friend said, "Well, overworking 1min 52sec every day...is working twice as more for them... I guess they are not happy. They will go on strike soon." Maybe Japanese workers should follow the French!! He told me that the French dun work during weekend and work from 9am to 5pm for the weekdays. It seems very NORMAL for most of people, but not for Japanese. In Japan, many people are working until midnight or even during weekend.

Many people ask me that how many days do we have holidays. It means not publich holiday, but paid holidays I guess. Usually, we cannot make holiday unless it is Sunday or public holiday. BY LAW, we supposed to have some paid holiday, but IN FACT it is very difficult to use the paid holiday as holiday. This is the reason why there are more PUBLIC HOLIDAYS in Japan than in other countries, I think. There are 16 public holidays in Japan. Especially in May, there are 3 days continuous holidays in Japan. We call long holidays in May, including weekend before and after the 3-day public holidays as "Golden Week" in Japan.

This year is very good. The public holiday is 3-5th May, and if we absent on 2nd and 6th of May, it will be 9days continuous holidays. (Because April 30th and May 1st, 7th and 8th are weekend!!) I think not so many people can absent on both 2nd and 6th though, "Golden Week" is the only "long" holidays for Japanese. But because of that, the travel related fares (such as air ticket, hotel and travel agent's fee) during "Golden Week" are extremely expensive!! Sometimes, it can be DOUBLE price as usual. To make matter worse, because many Japanese travel or go out all at once during that period, most of places where people like to go during holidays are overcrowded. It is really CRAZY to travel famous spot during "Golden Week". EXPENSIVE, CROWDED and TIRED!


* All the sources and link is written in Japanese. Sorry!!