Context: I work at an English speaking tech firm with a Japanese boss.
There is currently an argument between management and my colleagues around whether or not we should be given some holidays on Obon.
Management is insisting that it is not usual for employees to be given free days off during Obon week, and that we should use are personal allowance instead if we want to take time off.
Can anyone confirm whether or not this is the case?
43 comments
I can offer one data point
My workplace gives 3 days off for Obon, but it’s up to you when to use them. Business operation continues so there are people who go into work during Obon, but if you do come in you keep those days to freely use elsewhere.
Around 80% of the staff takes those days off, it seems.
The answer (as it often is) to your question is, “What does it say in your Rules of Employment (就業規則)?”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/roudoukijun/model/dl/04.pdf
First line:
> 労働時間、休憩及び休日に関することは、就業規則の絶対的必要記載事項に当たります。
“Hours of work, breaks and **days off** are considered to be absolutely required written items in the Rules of Employment.”
If your Rules of Employment say something like:
（休日） 休日は、次のとおりとする。
① 土曜日及び日曜日
② 国民の祝日（日曜日と重なったときは翌日）
③ 年末年始（１２月xx日～１月xx日）
④ 夏季休日（ x月xx日～x月xx日）
⑤ その他会社が指定する日
then line 4 is what you get for summer vacation (i.e. the Obon period).
If it doesn’t have that line and only mentions 国民の祝日, then you only get off the days which are marked as official holidays in the calendar, and since only last Friday (Yama no Hi) counts as an official holiday during Obon, that’s all you get.
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I work at a tech company. No free days off for Obon at my company.
Same for my husband, at a different tech company.
Read your contract. In the places where I have worked we got 5 days off (as per our contract) for our Summer Holiday. It could be taken consecutively any time from June to October. Many people took it at Obon.
I work at an English speaking tech firm, we have no additional day off for Obon, but we are encouraged to take PTO if necessary. This is also communicated to other teams outside of Japan so that they know inquiries to teams based in Japan might be delayed.
The other two English speaking tech firms I worked at before this have no special consideration for Obon whatsoever.
Some places take part of your legally mandated holidays and place them on obon(iirc they can place a few days, not all). That is why many places have obon holidays but those places have less floating holidays.
Having your days off floating is better for you so yeah, this is good for you
I’ve always had national holidays as a company holiday. In fact, we are at the in-laws right now.
As someone else mentioned, national holidays aren’t mandatory.
However, it’s a very strong indicator that your company are a right proper gang of black company cunts if they don’t give their highly valued employees a well-earned break in order to go and give the family tomb a good scrub down.
I would wager as much as 4円 that your company boss has gone to meet his ancestors this week.
Edit: Checking the calendar, it was only the 11th that was a national holiday anyway.
I am a yearly contractor/appointee for a local government and we get three paid days off for the summer.
Contract. Read it before you sign it. Our opinions and situations do not matter.
I work at a very large Japanese company and we have 5 days off (7 incl weekend) for Obon, paid as usual, and not used from our own holiday. Check your contract.
My company gives three days off of special leave ontop of annual leave, and expects us to use the rest of annual leave to leave the office during the obon period.
Only one company I worked at here gave time off for Obon.
Some companies close for Obon, a lot don’t. Pretty odd that the employees are arguing with management as it should have been obvious before they joined.
I can’t remember the exact detail, but I’ve got “company holidays” in my contract (Japanese tech-orientated KK) for summer and New Year. Working through O-bon because I can shuffle them round a bit and take the time off when everyone else isn’t).
It varies by company.
Most Japanese-owned offices will have 3 to 5 days off over the Obon period. Many factories (especially those of large companies) shut down for 1 or 2 weeks for summer break, part of which is Obon. It’s a common time to get maintenance and upgrades done, so not *everyone* at a big plant gets time off but most people do.
In American/Canadian/Australian owned gaishikei, it is in my experience pretty rare to get company-wide days off over Obon. In European-owned gaishikei it is more common since half the company seems to be on holiday for all of August anyway.
There is also variance by industry. If you work in a consulting tech firm there’s a good chance you won’t get Obon off because it’s easy to get a big change window when your customer’s offices are empty because they have Obon week off.
So yes, days off over Obon are common, but not guaranteed.
Personally I get no extra days for Obon but I get 6 weeks of PTO that I’m all but **required** to take, so I usually take a few days of PTO over the Obon period.
At a Japanese tech company. No days for obon, but maybe mountain day was considered an extension of it?
It’s common in some offices, not in others. My company doesn’t give time off but most people are off for at least part of this week.
I know some people at a Japanese big tech company who get 2 weeks off at Obon
My company doesn’t do Obon. We just had Friday off.
It’s kinda common, but each company makes up their own rules.
It can be nothing; mandatory week off with the half of the country; or holidays that can be taken within a couple of month.
I think there was some communique from the government encouraging the latter.
its common but not everyone does it, or some companies give only 1 or 2 days instead of the full obon.
Common in automotive especially OEM or T1 because that’s when they take the opportunity to do maintenance on production lines or install new equipment. Same for GW.
Factory worker, most of the factories in Tokai are closed for obonn, golden week and new years. I assumed that was the case for most of the country outside of the service industry. Apparently that is not correct.
It.is entirely up to company policy. If they do.give you days off they’re charged against the pto the company is allowed to allot for you.
No obon, just work.
Obon is osusume Holliday, should use personal days off. I don’t take day off but all my company took (so is kinda working with no meetings)
I take my days off when is more colder.
I am lucky in that I get 5 (paid) days off and this is separate from paid holidays that an individual employee would chose to take. 2 caveats. I still have to answer mail from abroad—but it is usually minimal and I also spend a couple of hours working on stuff (at home) that I know is coming up when we get back. Also, my company doesn’t do it because they are nice—simply there just isn’t much going on domestically.
Yeah imma work right through, i don’t have a boss and run my own small company, but I just took an afternoon to visit our family grave for a cleanup and a quick namu myoho. Other than visiting past family, it isn’t really a holiday per se.
Tech company. Everyone got summer holiday off until the 16th
It depends. Obon is not a national holiday, so your company doesn’t have to give you time off.
That said, in practice many people in the big cities take paid time off from work in order to visit their families in the countryside.
If you work at a customer-facing position that could have fewer customers during this week because of this, your management may decide to give a couple people the week off because not as many are needed at work.
Happy Obon!
Haven’t had one at any of the tech companies I’ve worked at here either, and I’m not sad about it. Why would I want to take holidays when 80% of the country is scurrying about making everything expensive and hard to book?
I have worked for a few companies in Japan, some foreign, some Japanese. At my most previous company I received 5 days between August and September to take however you want and currently I get 3 days as decided by the company. It’s not uncommon, but it’s also not a governmentally dictated holiday.
I have not worked anywhere that offers obon off, though a lot of people use pto at that time.
English speaking company – assuming your coworkers are foreigners, and your contract doesn’t state clearly, if you don’t speak up you’ll have lost another small battle for everyone trying to change the standard.
Fight for it!
We get “special summer holidays” and are encouraged to use them during Obon, when the doors are locked and and nobody’s there anyways.
For all the companies I’ve worked here in the last 20 years or so, only the one Japanese company gave obon off, the full week. Didn’t affect PTO.
All the rest (mix of US/EU companies with sales offices here) didn’t basically know obon existed 😀
I’m working for a Japanese recruitment firm and he gave us two free days off as holiday and our firm is a traditional Japanese company.
Seriously the Japanese government should give the whole damn country 1-week off and pay anyone stuck working time and a half to make up for it.
This country is so backwards with wages 🤦♂️
Our tech company provides 1 year calendar for next year beforehand and obon holiday is included too.
We get national holidays too but have to attend Saturday the same week of given holiday.
No.
I’ve found it’s mostly small, locally-run businesses that offer time of for Obon. Larger companies or industries where Obon is the busiest time of year tend not to have Obon yasumi.
It’s definitely not a mandatory thing, it’s at the discretion of your company.
Free days off ..no are you allowed to take them or have have unpaid leave ..likely