Japan's
Family
Customs
THE RISE AND DIVERSITY
OF VACATIONS
There are certain times in Japan when holidays appear
one after another, such as Golden Week, from the end of April to the
beginning of May. Other full scale holidays are at the end of
the year (New Year's) and the middle of August (Bon festival).
Vacations are concentrated during these three
periods. As a result, 3 times in the year, the throng of people on
transportation facilities and roads returning home to visit parents and
coming back again, unfailingly becomes an issue. Travel abroad
during this period reaches a peak at international airports such as New
Tokyo International Airport (Narita), which is invariably congested with
people.
There are businesses adopting flexible holidays to
avoid the crowd. Taking annual vacations has become an accepted
company policy even taking days off has now become easier. An
amendment of the Labor Standard Law, carried out in April 1997,
implemented a 40-hour week. Consequently, the era of a 5-day work
week has finally gained ground.
Based on the activities and polled opinions of those
15 years and older, the shorter the holiday, the more one indulges in
pastimes like gambling. When the holiday is 2 to 3 days long,
gambling decreases and activities such as driving, enjoying the outdoors
and outdoor sports increase. When the holiday stretches to 3 or
more days, domestic and international travel shows a sharp increase, as
well as activities in the areas of self-enrichment including family
communication, reading and studying.
ELECTRO-LEISURE
The unique sense of creativity of the Japanese and
their penchant for electronic technology have spawned a new way of
enjoying leisure in an area called electro-leisure, such as karaoke,
animation, computer game software and pachinko. With
the shift to economy travel, these types of leisure are expected to
become even more popular.
Pachinko, or pinball, is played on a vertical
glass-covered machine that has a number of holes in the panel. The
object of the game is to get the ball into a lucky hole, which results
in more balls being emitted by the machine. Collected balls can be
exchanged for prizes. Pachinko was formerly an
entertainment for a select few in Japan, but is now enjoyed by all types
of people, even young women. It is considered to be the king of
amusement for the masses and the numbers of those who become completely
preoccupied with and dependent upon pachinko have been on the
rise.
Karaoke is a Japanese invention that has been
sweeping the world. It is a system where musical accompaniment to
a song is prerecorded on a compact or laser disc. A song is
selected and played. One sings into a microphone equipped with
echo effects to the selected song. The range and tempo can be
altered at will. Karaoke equipment run by inserting coin
was made in the early 1970's. Songs can now be freely selected by
remote control. There are even karaoke communications
equipment that are connected to the telephone.
TRADITIONAL LEISURE
Horse racing has become one of the gambling favorites to
flourish on a par with pachinko, which is unprecedented in the
world. The betting tickets sold by the Japan Racing Association (JRA),
a special body under supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry, and Fisheries, have been marking profits yearly. The
only year of decline was in 1995, the year of the Hanshin-Awaji
earthquake in Kobe, but it rebounded the following year to mark a plus
growth of 3.98 trillion yen (US $36.6 billion). The rate of
increase has again slowed again. A single horse racing
event by the JRA runs for 8 days at 10 racing tracks throughout Japan,
for a total of 36 times for 288 days. In addition, local horse
racing, carried out by the various local municipalities are held at 30
regional racing tracks throughout Japan. Go and shogi
are representative of Japanese traditional indoor games. Go
is played by 2 players. Black and white stones are alternately
placed on a board with the objective of capturing the opponent's stones
and covering the board with one's own stone color. Shogi
resembles chess somewhat; the 2 players face each other. The
pieces are moved alternately, the objective being to capture the
opponent's king. Shogi originated in India and made its way
to China. The difference in the Japanese version is that a
captured piece can be used as one's own. With the diversity of TV
games, amusement and leisure, the number of those who play go and
shogi has decreased to less than 10%. Although
many Japanese enjoy traveling overseas, karaoke, and pachinko
in their free time, they also enjoy traditional pastimes. Cherry
blossom flower viewing is an all-time favorite in the spring, as the
blossoms unfold from south to north. Many also pursue the
scarlet-tinged leaves in the autumn.
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Information provided
by the Japanese Embassy
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