Japan’s Coming-Of-Age (Seijin no Hi) Day

Celebrated at the second monday of every year (today), Seijin no Hi (成人の日 / せいじんのひ) also known as Coming of Age is a national holiday in Japan where all the young people celebrate that they have turned 20. In Japan, that is also the legal age of adulthood. This year, the estimated amount of people came to about 1.33million, down from 20,000 from the previous year. This is also a record low for the 2nd consecutive year.

The new adults—680,000 men and 650,000 women—celebrated the start of adulthood at ceremonies held nationwide Monday marking Coming-of-Age Day, a national holiday. They account for 1.04% of Japan’s total population, down 0.02 percentage point from a year earlier to mark a record low for a third straight year.

Source: JapanToday

Not many babies ? This is definitely a worrying concern for them along with some other developed countries of an aging population.

Extras to lookout for:

A furisode

Image Source: wikipedia

If you are on a holiday during this day, you will realise a street of babes who have turned 20 wearing beautiful kimonos known as a furisode. For girls who turned 20, wearing a furisode (振袖) signifies that she is both single and a legal adult and yes they are now known as women. A single furisode isn’t cheap though, each can cost as much as 1,000,000yen to purchase. Of course, renting is available for those who could not afford to own one.

As for guys, most will just wear just formal costumes with a few traditional ones wearinga  hakama (袴). Of course, the main highlight during this day is usually focused on the girls. Have you been to Japan during Seijin no Hi  ?

a video I found