A public-holiday calendar records the days Japan has set aside as statutory time off. National holidays apply nationwide; where an official regional or provincial list is published, those dates are included separately and clearly labelled rather than folded into the national figures. This calendar is a reference, not a legal determination of anyone's leave entitlement. Dates move for two common reasons: many countries observe a fixed-date holiday on the nearest working day when it falls at a weekend, and some observances follow lunar or other non-Gregorian reckoning that shifts against the everyday calendar. Regional holidays are always shown as regional and never added to the national count. The licence terms and the government producer behind each list are credited on the sources page.
Reading the table
The table gives the date a holiday falls on, the observance date when a weekend shift or substitute day applies, and notes published with the source. A Regional · <region> badge marks a holiday that applies only in that region; it is never counted as nationwide. Some countries publish both the original date and the observed date, so both are shown instead of silently adjusting one. Employers, schools, and individual workplaces may follow different calendars or grant extra days, so treat this table as a guide rather than an entitlement. For a wider comparison of why observance moves between countries, see why holiday dates differ between countries. The official source is always the final authority.
Where these dates come from
Japan's dates come from the Cabinet Office's official holiday CSV, published by the Government of Japan and reused with attribution. The file lists national holidays under the national holidays law, and it also carries substitute holidays as their own rows: when a national holiday falls on a Sunday, the next non-holiday day becomes a holiday, and the CSV names it separately. That is why a year can contain more rows than the nominal list suggests. Two holidays, the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox Days, are announced by the National Astronomical Observatory because they depend on the exact equinox. Japan has no official sub-national public holiday calendar under a reusable licence, so the desk is national only. The Cabinet Office updates the CSV when a date is proclaimed or a new holiday takes effect, and the desk is refreshed from the file. When a national holiday falls between two other holidays, the day in between can also become a holiday under the same law.