Sometimes it seems I live holiday to holiday. Having just finished Respect for the Aged Day, and the Autumn Equinox (both national holidays) I am now looking forward to Sports Day in October. The problem with national holidays in Japan, however, is that they are rarely a chance to relax. Instead, they are a chance to do another obligatory something somewhere.
There will be the obligatory sports festivals to attend on Sports Day for example. Not a moment to spare.
In 1868, when the Meiji government took over Japan, it adopted a holiday system called 1-6, meaning that any day ending in a one or a six was a holiday (as opposed to the Western calendar which has weekends off). Additional holidays were based on local festivals and Shinto religious days, all of which would have required preparation and planning.