Public holidays in Japan, 2026

Reading these figures

The working day count treats Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, which is the standard working week in Japan. Only nationwide holidays are deducted; a date observed in one region alone still counts as a working day here, because a national figure that moved with regional calendars would describe nobody accurately.

The longest working month is December at 23 days; the shortest is May at 18. That spread of 5 days matters for anything billed or accrued monthly, which is why payroll and capacity plans that assume an even year drift by the end of it. The thinnest quarter is Q1, carrying 59 working days across January, February, March.

Compared with 2025, which held 246 working days, 2026 is 1 working day shorter. Where a target is carried over from one year to the next unchanged, that difference is absorbed silently unless someone accounts for it.

Against the 204 countries covered here for 2026, Japan's 16 nationwide holidays put it above the median of 12, around the 88th percentile. The range across all countries this year runs from 3 to 49.

The holidays produce 8 breaks of three consecutive non-working days or more. The longest runs 5 days, from 2 May 2026 to 6 May 2026, built around Greenery Day and Children's Day and Constitution Memorial Day. A further 4 working days are stranded between a holiday and a weekend, where one day of leave buys a break of four days or more. The full breakdown is here.

8 of this year's holidays sit on a different calendar date than in 2025: Coming of Age Day, The Emperor's Birthday, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, Marine Day, Respect for the Aged Day and others. Dates that move cannot be carried forward from last year's planning spreadsheet, which is the most common way a holiday is missed.

Notes on Japan

Japan has the most active substitution rules of any country covered here, and they work in three
ways. Under the Happy Monday System several holidays are fixed to a particular Monday rather than
to a calendar date. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following working day becomes a
substitute holiday. And when a single working day is trapped between two holidays, that day
becomes a holiday as well.

The combined effect is that Japan rarely loses a holiday to the weekend, and the working year is
very stable.

Two major shutdown periods sit outside the official list. Golden Week from late April into early
May is built on genuine public holidays and is reflected here. Obon in mid August is not: it is
customary rather than statutory, most of the country stops, and none of it appears in these
figures.

Related

• Long weekends and bridge days in Japan 2026
• Working days in Japan 2026, month by month
• Count working days between two dates in Japan
• Add working days to a date in Japan
• Compare Japan against another country