Let's discuss Mountain Day

This week's featured article

Nearly a third of people have never heard of Mountain Day, according to a new survey, as the newest official public holiday is set to be celebrated for the first time on Thursday.

In 2014, the Diet established Aug. 11 as Mountain Day to be observed from this year, raising the annual tally of official public holidays in Japan to 16. The legislation to create the new holiday was submitted by a group of lawmakers and enacted with support from both the ruling camp and the opposition.

The revised Law on National Holidays says that Mountain Day is designed to provide "opportunities to become familiar with mountains and be thankful for blessings from mountains."

But in a recent online survey of 500 people, just 68 percent said they had heard of the new holiday.

The company compared the recognition of Mountain Day with Marine Day, which is observed on the third Monday of July. The results showed that 90.2 percent of those polled were aware of Marine Day, which debuted in 1996.

Japan is blessed with an abundance of mountainous regions, and mountain trekking or hiking is a popular activity, especially among seniors.

But 59.4 percent of the people surveyed said they "want to rest at home" on Mountain Day. Only 12 percent said they want to go traveling, and an even smaller 9.6 percent said they want to go to the mountains.

Lawmakers picked Aug. 11 as the best date for Mountain Day since many municipal governments had voluntarily set the date as a day to observe their mountains. Some had chosen the date because eight, written in kanji, resembles the shape of a mountain, observers say, adding that the number 11 also looks like two standing trees.

In recent decades the number of holidays has steadily grown in Japan, which is notorious for its long working hours. But as many Japanese don't take long vacations, they most often register those holidays as extra days off to be tacked onto their weekends.

First published in The Japan Times on Aug. 10.

Warm up

One-minute chat about holidays.

Game

Collect words related to mountains, e.g., tent, climbing, spring water.

New words

1) tally: a current score or amount; e.g., "He wants to extend his record tally to three gold medals."

2) abundance: great amount; e.g., "Japan is a nice place with an abundance of nature."

3) notorious: well-known for some bad quality, infamous; e.g. "He was a notorious gambler."

Guess the headline

A third of Japan unaware of M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Day as h _ _ _ _ _ _ makes its debut

Questions

1) What is the idea behind this new national holiday?

2) According to the survey, what percentage of people plan to get into the spirit of the new holiday?

3) Why was Aug. 11 chosen as the date for the holiday?

Let's discuss the article

1) What did you do for Mountain Day this year?

2) Do you think the government needs to create more holidays in Japan?

3) What national holiday would you create if you could?

Reference

海の日なる新しい祝日が10年前に制定されだいぶ馴染みも出てきた今年、次は山の日なる祝日が制定されました。お盆の時期とも近く連休を取得 された方、日帰りで山やお出かけを楽しまれた方、お家にいらっしゃった方もいると思いますがどのような山の日を過ごされたでしょうか。初めての山の日を迎えた今年、その経済効果は一定の成果を見せ来年以降も期待 されています。

祝日が増えていくことに賛否の声はあるようですが、"特別な日"が年々 増えていっていることは事実のようです。皆さんは祝日が増えることに賛成でしょうか。どんなことを祝う日があればいいと思うか、皆さんで話し合って みましょう。