The government's plan to make sure full-time regular employees take their paid vacation has apparently failed. A survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, released last month, found that Japan's full-time regular employees only took an average 47.1 percent of their paid vacation in 2012, down 2.2 percentage points from 2011. The government's goal of increasing the percentage of paid vacations taken to 70 percent by 2020 seems further away than ever.

The survey noted that although regular full-time employees are entitled to an average of 18.3 days of paid vacation, they actually took only 8.6 days. Men took just 44.2 percent of their paid vacation, while women took 53.4 percent. Workers at electric and gas utilities took more of their allotted holidays than workers in any other industry — 71.1 percent. However, employees in the hotel and restaurant industry took the fewest, a mere 29.8 percent. And many employers simply delete employees' unused paid vacation days that exceed a company-set ceiling.

Employers and employees in Japan should recognize that paid vacation days are a legal right. The economic downturn is no excuse for putting off taking time away from work. Businesses need to be better organized and accepting of employees taking due time off. Of course, scheduling vacations is a logistic nightmare, especially for small companies and for key employees. However, vacations are a basic element of good business ethics.