August is the peak of Japanese summer and I’ve heard of some regions in Japan where the temperature sometimes surpasses 35 degrees.
Japanese schools (from Year 1 to Year 12) have three school holiday sessions and the longest one is in the summer. Most school summer holidays are six weeks long and start from 21st July and end on 31st August, but some schools in cooler climate regions like Hokkaido have shorter summer holidays and longer winter holidays.
During the school holidays, Japanese students usually work on their assigned school projects on either science or society and go on trips to the mountains or the seaside. A lot of students also come to Australia and New Zealand on school trips during the holiday season. When this happens, CLAIR Sydney supports their activities during their visit to ensure that everything goes smoothly and the students are able to create wonderful memories and lasting connections with locals.
On the contrary, Japanese workers do not have long summer vacations. In the case of local government officers, they only have three days of special summer leave and most of them take less than one week off during the holiday season. As I mentioned in a previous article, the Japanese work environment, which is often strongly based on teamwork and interdependent relationships, makes it very difficult for most Japanese workers to take leave.
So if you do happen to see Japanese workers on vacation, please be kind to them and help them make nice memories during their time off as it was probably not easy for them to take leave.
Katsunori Kamibo
Director