How does Japan mark War dead and veterans?
戦没者を追悼し平和を祈念する日
- Local date
- August 15, 2027
Japan's 15 August has no statute behind it. Its formal name is the Day to Mourn the War Dead and Pray for Peace, and its basis is a cabinet decision of 13 April 1982 — not the Act on National Holidays. It is therefore not a day off: shops open, offices work. The government holds the National Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead at the Nippon Budokan, attended by the Emperor and the Prime Minister, with representatives of bereaved families from every prefecture and a minute of silence at noon. The ceremony has been held since 1963; the 1982 cabinet decision fixed the date. A country's central day of mourning resting on an administrative decision rather than a law is unique among these seven.
What is this topic?
The United States splits the dead from the survivors into two separate federal holidays: Memorial Day in May for those killed, Veterans Day on 11 November for those who came home. The other six countries mostly set aside a single day, and mostly do not give it off — Taiwan lets the defence ministry decide who gets the day, Japan's 15 August rests on a cabinet decision rather than any statute, and Indonesia's Heroes' Day is filed by presidential decree under "national days that are not holidays".
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.