It's one of just 10 national holidays for a country that prides itself on a world-renowned work ethic¹.

 

But in Japan, the country's government just unveiled their 16th national holiday. So, is Japan a holiday happy nation compared to its American counterparts? Not exactly.

 

Officially beginning on August 11 2016, "Mountain Day" was ostensibly（表面上） created to recognize Japan's culturally significant mountainous regions. But The Diplomat² reports that the holiday was actually most likely created to put a dent³ in Japan's "overworked" population that largely refuses to use its government protected vacation time. A recent Wall Street Journal claims that the average Japanese worker only uses 8.6 of their paid vacation days each year.

 

"In Japan, there is of course paid vacation, but people don't take it," Seishiro Eto, a member of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party that led support for the new holiday, told the WSJ. "I hope with Mountain Day, people will be able to take more of their vacation."

 

By comparison, workers in the US use an average of 10 of their 14 paid vacation days each year. However, a 2013 "Vacation Deprivation⁴ Study" from Expedia.com says that still amounts to a staggering 577,212,000 unused annual vacation days in the US.

 

And the workaholic approach may not even be as effective as some think. After all, French workers have the largest amount of guaranteed time off of any major industrialized nation yet their worker productivity is also amongst the world's highest.

 

"When you have a longer working day, at some point because you're becoming tired, it decreases your productivity," French economist⁵ Renaud Bourlès told BusinessWeek.

 

Nonetheless, mandatory⁶ vacation days may not be a perfect solution. The Diplomat notes that mandatory holidays can create headaches for a workforce⁷ all taking the day off together. In theory, when employees voluntarily choose their vacation days the dip in the workforce is more evenly distributed over the year. But when everyone is taking the same national holidays cities are left with congested roads and overbooked flights during what is meant as a window of relaxation⁸.

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