Japan just finished up its annual Golden Week holiday, a series of national holidays that means many in the busy nation earned a long work respite. But some ended up tacking on an extra day this week thanks to Nintendo. And, at least in some cases, their companies didn’t seem to mind.
Tears of the CEO
For those of you who aren’t game nerds and/or aren’t terminally online, the big event was the release of the new game in Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (hereafter TotK) is the first new release in the series since 2017’s Breath of the Wild.
The game sees the protagonist Link join forces with the titular Princess Zelda to foil the villain Ganondorf’s attempts to take over the kingdom of Hyrule. TotK builds upon Wild‘s open world setting with additional features enabling vertical exploration, custom object crafting, and more.
Some people were so excited, they couldn’t wait for the weekend. The term ゼルダ休み (zeruda yasumi; Zelda holiday) entered Twitter’s trending topics as eager players told the world they wouldn’t be going back to work until Monday (at least).
It isn’t the first time Japan’s spontaneously decided to take a holiday for a game. In 2021, the new release of Capcom’s Monster Hunter led to a quasi national day off. At least one company even declared release day an official “Monster Hunter Holiday”.
However, this time, the timing is intriguing, as it comes the Friday after Golden Week. This was the first Golden Week in three years conducted without any pandemic-related restrictions – and it was a busy one.
Of course, Japanese users weren’t the only ones excited for the release. Users worldwide were anxious to break into the latest installment of the series. Some wished that the “Zelda Holiday” could become a worldwide phenomenon.
The spread of “otaku time off”
Working in Japan can be rough. Legally, workers are entitled to use their work vacation days for whatever purpose suits them. However, surveys show that employees in Japan typically use less of their vacation time than those in other nations.
However, in recent years, more employees have felt empowered to take vacation days. In particular, some say they feel less compunction about taking days off to pursue their hobbies and interests.
Some companies are even supporting this trend. Alice Day Care in Sapporo announced in October 2022 they would give employees with oshi (推し; one’s favorite idol, singer, actor, etc.) time separate from their regular vacation to participate in fan activities such as concerts and meet-and-greet events.
Alice said it was providing special dispensation for oshi because many employees said they use up their regular vacation to spend time with family or friends, or to cover sick time. In a tweet announcing the policy, Alice said that it wanted to support its employees’ happiness: “the smiles on kids’ faces are born from the smiles of our employees.”
In a report on Alice’s new policy, NHK found a lot of people around Sapporo supportive of the move. Even those who didn’t have an oshi said they’d look forward to holidays that let them participate in special events.
Whatever the reason, it’s good to see more people taking time off to do what makes them happy.
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Sources
“ゼルダ休み”を報告するゲームファンが続出。「だって発売日にやりたいから」広がるゲーム休暇、企業が認めるケースも. Huffington Post JP
推しのライブに行ける休暇？ 「推し休暇」導入が話題 – 札幌市の保育園で. MyNavi News
多様な働き方に注目 “推し休暇”を知ってますか. NHK News
