Hello, I am Yoshi from NILS Japanese language school. “Golden Week” starts from tomorrow, and there are four national holidays during this week. Today, I would like to tell you about one of them.
April 29th is called Showa Day. This day was a national holiday for 63 years to celebrate former Emperor Showa’s birthday. After his death in 1989, the Emperor’s birthday holiday was moved to December 23rd, which is the current emperor’s birthday. However, since April 29th had long been teh starting date of Golden Week, the Government thought that this holiday should not be taken away. Thus the date was designated as Greenery Day and continues to exsist as a national holiday. As of 207, the name of the day was changed to Showa Day. The purpose of this holiday is to remember the Showa Period, which experienced great upheaval after World War II. Greenery Day was moved to May 4th to make Golden Week one long holiday.

April 27th News, from NILS Japanese language school.