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Around this time each year, millions of Americans are enjoying a three-day weekend heading into Memorial Day. Its one of just 10 national holidays for a country that prides itself on a world-renowned work ethic. But in Japan, the countrys government just unveiled their 16th national holiday. So, is Japan a holiday happy nation compared to its American counterparts? Not exactly. Officially beginning on August 11 2016, Mountain Day was ostensibly created to recognize Japans culturally significant mountainous regions. But The Diplomat reports that the holiday was actually most likely created to put a dent in Japans overworked population that largely refuses to use its government protected vacation time. A recent Wall Street Journal claims that the average Japanese worker only uses 8.6 of their paid vacation days each year. In Japan, there is of course paid vacation, but people don t take it, Seishiro Eto, a member of Japans Liberal Democratic Party that led support for the new holiday, told the WSJ. I hope with Mountain Day, people will be able to take more of their vacation. By comparison, workers in the US use an average of 10 of their 14 paid vacation days each year. However, a 2013 Vacation Deprivation Study from Expedia.com says that still amounts to a staggering 577,212,000 unused annual vacation days in the US. And the workaholic approach may not even be as effective as some think. After all, French workers have the largest amount of guaranteed time off of any major industrialized nation yet their worker productivity is also amongst the worlds highest. | 
