All Yahoo Japan Corp. employees will be given the privilege of taking Friday off if a national holiday falls on a Saturday, a new system seen as extremely rare among big firms, it said Thursday.

Yahoo Japan will allow its nearly 4,000 employees to take three-day weekends when a Saturday is a public holiday, starting with Culture Day, which is always Nov. 3.

"We've never heard of other major firms adopting a similar system like ours" in Japan, a Yahoo Japan official said, adding the firm hopes introducing the system will help employees work hard when needed.

The government is also exploring the possibility of making Monday or Friday a substitute holiday to increase three-day weekends, partly in a bid to support the tourism industry and stimulate domestic consumption. But such a change may require a revision of the national holiday law, a prospect that remains uncertain.