Ceremonies commemorating Coming-of-Age Day were held Friday, drawing thousands of new adults to municipal offices across the country.
According to the Management and Coordination Agency, about 1.7 million young people turned 20 years old, the recognized legal age of adulthood in Japan, last year.
Coming-of-Age Day is usually observed Jan. 15 but will be moved to the second Monday of January from 2000, in accordance with the recently revised national holidays law. The new law, which also moves Health-Sports Day from Oct. 10 to the second Monday of October, is designed to increase consumer spending by creating three-day weekends.
In Asakusa in Tokyo's Taito Ward, about 900 of the 1,752 new adults in the ward participated in the ceremony and celebrated the day. Several of the new adults attended the ceremony dressed in kimono or formal suits.
Fumiko Kobayashi, a university sophomore who dressed in a kimono, said she started to feel her responsibility as an adult when she considered voting at the upcoming gubernatorial election in April. "I have to behave on my own as an adult from now on," Kobayashi said.