National Foundation Day

National Foundation Day is observed on February 11 under the Act on National Holidays, which describes its purpose as recalling the nation’s founding and nurturing love for the country. The date derives from a nineteenth-century conversion of the traditional accession date attributed to the legendary Emperor Jimmu in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. It is not an archaeologically established founding date and should not be presented as a verified event in 660 BCE.

The imperial-state holiday Kigensetsu used the date from the Meiji period until the postwar occupation abolished it in 1948. After extensive parliamentary debate, the present holiday was created by a 1966 amendment and first observed in 1967. Some organisations hold ceremonies or display flags, while critics and historians discuss its relationship to prewar nationalism, imperial institutions and the place of foundational myths in a constitutional democracy.

National Foundation Day is governed by Japan’s Act on National Holidays, and the Cabinet Office’s official calendar confirms its 2026 date. A statutory national holiday falling on Sunday creates a holiday on the nearest following day that is not already a national holiday; a weekday between two national holidays is also a holiday. These rules, not an informal “Mondayisation” assumption, produce May 6 and September 22 in 2026. Bank of Japan offices additionally close from December 31 through January 3, but those banking closures do not turn December 31 or January 2–3 into national holidays for all workers and businesses.