Coming of Age Day in Japan

Girls on this day are especially beautiful and cheerful.“I want to find a prestigious job and climb the ranks”, “I will continue the family business and will do everything to make my father’s firm flourish”, “I want to successfully marry and live in a big house”, “I want to earn a lot of money, travel around the world and study the culture of different peoples”.
These are just some of the answers of the boys and girls participating in the coming of age ceremony to the question “What do you want to achieve as an adult?”

In Japan, adults are 20 years old, and every year on the second Monday of January, all of Japan celebrates the Day of Coming of Age (Seijin no Hi).

At the age of 20, Japanese boys and girls receive the rights and duties of adults: from this age they can take part in elections, are fully responsible before the law, and are subject to labor laws. In addition, from the age of 20, young people are officially allowed to smoke and drink alcohol.

On the Day of Coming of Age, everyone who is 20 years old or turns 20 this year receives congratulations and parting words at a specially organized ceremony. Girls, as a rule, dress in a kimono bright colors with long sleeves, the so-called furisode. Young men usually wear celebratory black suits, although in recent years many have opted for the male kimono.

Wishes written and attached in the temple will surely come true.

Usually, the city authorities organize solemn gatherings and parties for “newly made adults”, at which memorable gifts are presented to the perpetrators of the celebration. Everyone receives a personal invitation from the head of the local administration or educational institution. The authorities get the list of 20-year-old citizens, oddly enough, from the tax office: every Japanese is obliged to pay a tax for living. Tax evaders are not invited and are not allowed to attend the ceremony. The perpetrators of the celebration, feeling freedom, can not always stop in time. Those who have gone overboard are brought home by comrades, but the next morning they will not be tormented by conscience, for such behavior (within the limits permitted by law and morality) on this day is not considered shameful.

The Day of Coming of Age has been a holiday since 1948. Prior to this, the ceremony of initiation into adulthood was not held in public, but in a local temple or quietly with the family.

Originally, Coming of Age Day was celebrated on January 15, and it is natural that often the holiday weekend fell in the middle of the week. Only one day on such an occasion is very small, and, in addition, young people have a tradition to return to their hometown to celebrate the coming of age there. In 1998, a law was passed that moved the holiday from a fixed date to the second Monday in January from 2000. Young people were given three days to celebrate, and all Japanese called the day “happy Monday.”