Health & Sports Day / Alma Fatagani-Sato

Health & Sports Day

By: Alma Fatagani-Sato

On October 10th, 1966 (two years after the 1964 Summer Olympics), was the first celebration of Health and Sports Day, a national holiday created to commemorate the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics. It is a day to promote physical and mental health, exercise, sports, and a healthy, active lifestyle.

Japan summer usually comes with rains, extreme heat with high humidity, and typhoons. It usually lasts from end of May to early September. Rain showers come around early June until mid-July. The hottest months are July and August. Typhoons and heavy rains usually come around September to early October. To avoid the harsh weather, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was held in October.

Every year, October 10th is chosen by schools and business to hold their annual Field Day (Undoukai) or sports day. Typically consists of various kinds of physical events such as track-and-field, 100 meter relay, tug of war, etc. Sometimes, it may be similar to a mini Olympic. This is also a special bonding time for the children and their parents, also for company colleagues and superiors.

In 2000, the Health and Sports Day was moved to the second Monday in October, because of the Happy Monday System (Happi- Mandei Seido).

Happy Monday System, which is the same as the United States 1969 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, is a set of modifications to Japanese Law to move a number of public holidays in Japan to Mondays, therefore, creating a three-day weekends for people with five-day work weeks.

The word ‘sports’ is said to have a much broader meaning than just physical education with implications of voluntary enjoyment. As such, in 2020, Health and Sports Day was permanently renamed as Sports Day. For the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the Sports Day was moved to July 24th to concur with the opening ceremonies. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Olympic and Paralympic was postponed to 2021 and correspondingly, the Sports Day was also moved to July 23rd.

Not everyone, but many Japanese are very enthusiastic about sports. If you are living in Japan, you probably have already noticed the long air time on television provided for sports and too many sports programs in every TV channel. Many people still get excited talking about the events that took place in the recently concluded 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Personally, I’m not very fond of sports and other physical activities.

Although I agree that, both mental and physical strengths are very important for the human existence and well-being. However, I think that brawns should come secondary to brains or at least a balance between them.

Alma Fatagani-Sato

Jeepney Press