New Year is the most important holiday in Japan, closer in feeling to Christmas in Europe than to a single day off. Families gather, visit shrines, send New Year cards and eat special food. Business stops. Government offices close from 29 December to 3 January under the Act on Holidays of Administrative Organs, and banks close from 31 December to 3 January. Most private companies follow a similar pattern, usually from 29 or 30 December to 3 or 4 January.
Only New Year's Day is a national holiday. The rest of the break is a company holiday, set in the work rules or the annual calendar. Retail, transport and hospitality work through it, and the first sales of the year are a major event.
The weeks around it are busy in HR. December payroll carries the year-end tax adjustment and, in most companies, the winter bonus. Year-end parties fill the calendar. In January, companies return to the business of the last quarter of the fiscal year, which ends on 31 March for most Japanese companies.
What it means for a foreign employer
- The bonus drives resignation timing. Many employees wait for the winter bonus, usually paid in December, before resigning, and the same applies to the summer bonus in June or July. Expect resignations, and candidates ready to move, in January and July.
- A January offer usually means an April start or later. With a notice period of one to three months and accumulated annual leave, a candidate who accepts in January is often available in April, at the start of the fiscal year.
- Do not plan decisions for late December. Approval chains slow from mid-December, and nothing moves until the second week of January.
- Check the bonus before you set a start date. A candidate leaving just before a bonus date may expect you to compensate them for it.
Sources
- Act on Holidays of Administrative Organs, Article 1.
- Act on National Holidays (Act No. 178 of 1948), Article 2.