Obon is the period when the spirits of ancestors are believed to return home. Families gather in their home town, visit graves and take part in local festivals and Bon dances. In most of Japan it falls in mid-August, centred on 15 August. Parts of Tokyo and a few other areas observe it in mid-July instead, and some regions still follow the lunar calendar, so the dates move from year to year.
It has no legal status. None of the Obon days is a national holiday, and the Labour Standards Act says nothing about it. Mountain Day on 11 August, a national holiday since 2016, sits just before it. What makes Obon a holiday is company practice. Many employers, particularly manufacturers, close for several days and write this into the company calendar as summer holiday. Others give employees a few days of special summer leave to take when they choose, and some simply expect staff to use annual leave. Head offices of foreign companies often stay open with skeleton staffing.
Like Golden Week and the year-end break, it is a peak travel period. Trains and flights are full, and many people are away from Tokyo.
What it means for a foreign employer
- Decide your policy and write it down. Closing, giving special summer leave, or relying on annual leave are all lawful, but the choice belongs in the work rules or company calendar.
- Summer leave is a quiet benefit. Candidates compare days off. A Japanese employer that closes for a week in August plus Golden Week and year end can offer more time off than a foreign company with generous-looking annual leave.
- Hiring slows. Decision-makers on both sides are away. Interviews in the second and third weeks of August are hard to schedule.
- Customers and suppliers will close. If your Japan business depends on Japanese manufacturers, plan around their shutdown.
Sources
- Act on National Holidays (Act No. 178 of 1948), as amended in 2014 (Mountain Day, in force 2016).