Six Saturdays were designated as make-up work days last year to create extended long weekends lasting three days or longer. However, the frequent six-day work weeks sparked some criticism.
Several changes were made to the public holiday calendar this year.
Aside from the Lunar New Year holiday, which had a make-up work day on Saturday last week, the first half of the year only has two more three-day long weekends: Tomb Sweeping Day/Children’s Day and the Dragon Boat Festival.
There are no three-day holidays for the second half of the year.
Japan this year has 11 three-day holidays.
Their New Year holiday is to be observed from the end of the year to the beginning of the next year and almost every month in the second half of the year is to have a long weekend.
Following amendments to Japanese laws governing national holidays, some national holidays were moved to Monday, such as Marine Day (the third Monday of July), Respect for the Aged Day (the third Monday of September) and Sports Day (the second Monday of October).
Japan increased the number of extended holiday weekends as part of its Happy Monday System.
This is equivalent to the US’ 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which permanently moved some federal holidays to Mondays. These include Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Jr Day and Columbus Day.
Changing holiday dates might weaken the purpose of celebrating or commemorating a holiday.
For example, Presidents’ Day this year falls on Feb. 19, even though his actual birthday is on Feb. 22.
This system does not go against people’s right to enjoy days off work, but instead gives them room to plan an extended vacation.
It would be much better to work make-up days than to add more substitute holidays.
The government could stabilize our economy and encourage workers to take a break, with minimal social cost spent on solving the holiday weekend issue.
“Holiday economics” is one of the best ways to boost domestic markets and consumption.
A three-day weekend is perfect for an overnight trip, but is not long enough for people to travel abroad.
That means that an extended holiday every few months would be good for Taiwan’s domestic tourism.
Administrative agencies should avoid being hijacked by the minority and listening to those who do not understand the situation.
It is actually essential to have more extended weekends in Taiwan.
Chen Yung-chang is a company manager.
Translated by Hsieh Yi-ching
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not