Could Keiro no Hi do with a rebrand?

On September 16, Japan celebrated Keiro no Hi, or Respect for the Aged Day, a national holiday that falls on the third Monday in September. A pretty sizable portion of the population didn’t actually want to be celebrated, though, a recent survey suggests.

Tokyo-based women’s interest magazine publisher Halmek Holdings conducted a survey asking 584 women between the ages of 50 and 88 how they feel about Respect for the Aged Day, and only 15.2 percent of them said they want to be celebrated in some way (receiving presents, being cooked for or taken out to dinner, etc.) on the day. That number was down 3.1 percent from three years ago, the last time the survey was conducted. Meanwhile, 43.3 percent of the respondents specifically said they do not want to be celebrated, a 3.3-percent increase from the previous survey.

When asked why they didn’t want to be celebrated, the top answer, from 36.8 percent of those respondents, was “I don’t think I’m at an age old enough to be celebrated,” followed by the very similar “Being celebrated makes me feel old” (29.3 percent). As to what age they imagine someone should be if they’re being celebrated on Respect for the Aged Day, the responses averaged out to 73.7 years old, up 3 years since the last survey, and more than a decade older than the average age of 63.1 that the survey participants reported as the average age at which they received their first Respect for the Aged Day presents or celebrations.

So what could be done to improve the image of Respect for the Aged Day? Really, the aversion seems to stem largely from semantics. Despite the traditional image of Japanese culture stressing reverence for those who’ve acquired abundant life experience, it’s a little on the nose to have a holiday with a name that says “We’re gonna do something nice for you today because you’re old!” While they’re not official holidays, both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are celebrated in Japan (falling on the same dates as they do in the U.S.), but moms and dads would probably be a lot less happy if those days were called “Respect for Middle-aged Women Day” and “Respect for Middle-aged Men Day.” So maybe changing the name of Respect for the Aged Day to something like Grandparents’ Day would give it a more complementary ring in some seniors’ ears, especially since in practice most Respect for the Aged Day celebrations are three-generation family get-togethers.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun
Top image: Pakutaso
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