Japan’s emperor to abdicate today

For the emperor’s abdication today, Japanese workers are enjoying an unprecedented 10-day holiday as a rash of special days off combine with the traditional “Golden Week” in May.  But not everyone is popping the champagne corks in famously workaholic Japan. “To be honest, I don’t know how to spend the time when we are suddenly given 10 days of holidays,” said 31-year-old finance worker Seishu Sato. “If you want to go travelling, it’s going to be crowded everywhere and tour costs have surged ... I might end up staying at my parents’ place,” he said. A survey by the Asahi Shimbun daily showed 45% of Japanese “felt unhappy” about the long vacation, with only 35% saying they “felt happy”.  “I won’t be able to take days off. On the contrary, we’ll be super-busy,” said Takeru Jo, a 46-year-old pizzeria worker. Others who have to work over the period complain about childcare. “For parents in the service sector, the 10 days of holiday is a headache. After-school care, nurseries — everything is closed,” tweeted one disgruntled parent. Many expect Tokyo and other large cities to empty as Japanese seize the rare opportunity for an overseas trip. “Most of our tours for the holiday period were sold out last year,” said Hideki Wakamatsu, a spokesman for Nippon Travel Agency, adding that many others were on the waiting list.  As the holiday kicked off on Saturday, airports were packed and there were long queues for Shinkansen bullet trains. Highways out of Tokyo were jammed with motorists aiming to make a getaway from the capital.  Still, if people are curiously indifferent to the idea of extra holidays as a result of the emperor, the imperial family remains as popular as ever. A poll by public broadcaster NHK found almost no one would admit to a “feeling of antipathy” towards the emperor with the vast majority saying they had a “positive feeling” or “respect.” Only 22% voiced indifference. This positive sentiment has risen every year since 2003, according to the NHK poll.  Takeshi Hara, politics professor at the Open University of Japan, said much of this stemmed from the imperial couple’s “welfare-related activities”. “Their attention to the elderly, the disabled and the victims of natural disasters — those ignored by politicians in the past three decades — has earned public support,” Hara told AFP. The fact that Emperor Akihito married his sweetheart Michiko “for love”— the first love marriage in imperial history —  has also boosted his standing, said Hara. But Hideto Tsuboi, from the Kyoto-based International Research Center for Japanese Studies, said one of the main reasons for Akihito’s popularity lay in the fact that he was “conscious of the responsibility of the post-war generation” to reflect on Japan’s wartime atrocities. On the 73rd anniversary of the end of World War II last year, Akihito reiterated “deep remorse” over the war and his continued wishes for peace.