Japan’s all-for-fun spring holiday season is a little tarnished these days.

Japan has three major vacation periods, but two of them come with social obligations. For both Oshogatsu (the New Year’s holiday period) and Obon (which takes place in early August), tradition holds that you’re supposed to go back to your hometown and spend a week or so reconnecting with parents, grandparents, and other extended family members.

That leaves Golden Week, the string of spring holidays that straddles the end of April and the start of May, as the purest vacation period in Japan, one in which you’ve got no cultural obligations beyond going out and having fun. This year, though, a Golden Week survey shows that roughly a third of respondents aren’t planning to do anything during their time off this year.

▼ Woooo…Golden Week…

Tokyo-based marketing research company Intage conducts an annual Golden Week survey, with this year’s iteration collecting 5,000 responses from participants aged 15-79 at the end of March. When asked what they had on their schedules for Golden Week, which started on April 29, 41.2 percent said “Nothing.” Even among those who did have “plans,” they often didn’t involve traveling or going out for other leisure activities, with 35.1 percent saying they would be “spending Golden Week at home.”

How are you planning to spend Golden Week this year?
● At home: 35.1 percent of respondents
● Going out to eat: 17 percent
● Shopping: 15 percent
● Domestic travel: 12.3 percent
● Exercising: 9 percent
● Spending time with friends or acquaintances: 8.7 percent
● Going to my parents’ home: 8.3 percent
● Going to movies, museums, theme parks, or other entertainment facilities: 8.2 percent
● Visiting relatives: 7.7 percent
● Going to nearby parks, temple, or shrines: 5.5 percent
● Overseas travel: 1 percent

When asked what their estimated Golden Week budget was for this year, the average worked out to 27,660 yen (US$179), which isn’t a whole lot when you consider that for many people Golden Week this year covers a span of eight days, with holidays on April 29 and May 4, 5, and 6, and many workplaces closed on April 30 and May 1 in order to form a string of days off with the weekend in the middle. The average Golden Week budget of 27,660 yen is down 5.4 percent compared to last year, and is even lower than in 2023, the first full year after Japan pulled out of the coronavirus pandemic.

So what’s causing the Golden Week leisure cutbacks? 49.2 percent cited a combination of rapidly rising consumer prices in Japan and the falling value of the yen. With spring also being the start of the business year in Japan, there’s been a recent flurry of companies announcing price increases for their products, and with no sign of that trend slowing down, a lot of households are tightening their belts to brace against the possibility of even more price hikes to come.

The low numbers of people planning to travel are especially telling. As mentioned above, Golden Week has long been the one extended vacation period in Japan that doesn’t include a responsibility to visit family members, which should make it one of the easiest times to travel. With the yen being at its lowest value against foreign currencies in decades, though, international travel is also beyond the budget of many Japanese people. The ongoing war in Iran is further dampening enthusiasm for overseas trips, with 25.4 percent of respondents saying it’s affecting their desire to travel abroad. Not that Iran itself was a particularly attractive destination for Japanese travelers, but air travel safety and reliability are a concern on many people’s minds.

As for decreased domestic travel demand, there are several factors at play. While the weak yen is making it harder for Japanese people to travel abroad, it’s made Japan a bargain for inbound foreign tourists, and many travel providers have realized they can raise their prices but still feel attractively affordable to visitors from overseas. This has resulted in higher hotel prices even as Japanese residents find themselves with less disposable income as they grapple with higher prices for groceries, utilities, and other necessities, and the prospect of straining an already stretched household budget just to travel somewhere that’s going to be packed with tourists from overseas isn’t a particularly appealing way to spend your week off. This, though, then encourages travel providers to orient their services, and prices, even more towards foreign tourists, further reducing their appeal and affordability for Japanese domestic travelers.

Hopefully, the Japanese economy will bounce back and Golden Week will once again become a period of pure fun, but for now, for a lot of Japanese people they don’t have the cash for a flashy vacation.

Source: Intage
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2)
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