Coming of Age Day

thumb|thumbtime=3|260px|Young people, dressed up for Coming of Age Day, walk in front of a shrine just before twilight (2009)(video).

is a public holiday in Japan held annually on the second Monday of January under the Happy Monday System. It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have already reached the age of maturity between April 2 of the previous year and April 1 of the current year, and to help them realise that they have become adults. Festivities include held at local and prefectural offices, as well as after-parties among family and friends.

Overview

On June 13, 2018, the age of maturity was lowered for the first time since it was established. According to the new law, which came into force in 2022, a citizen is considered an adult with the onset of full 18 years.

Note that Coming of Age Day and the ceremony itself are not directly linked to changes in the legal status of young people. For example, adult status becomes effective on the 18th birthday, with some exceptions; both men and women can marry and are released from parental authority. At the same time, they are released from the various family and social restrictions imposed on minors. As adults, they become eligible for contracting on their own. As before, drinking and smoking are allowed at age 20, and the right to vote and to obtain a driver's license for passenger vehicles begins at age 18 (16 for motorcycles).

History

Coming of age ceremonies have been celebrated in Japan since at least 714 CE, during the reign of Empress Genmei when a young prince donned new robes and a hairstyle to mark his passage into adulthood.

Rituals to celebrate adulthood have existed since ancient times, such as (changing to adult clothing) and (loincloth celebration) for boys, and (dressing up) and (tying the hair up) for girls. Cultural anthropology and folklore studies treat such ceremonies as rites of passage (initiations).

thumb|upright=2|A late 18th-century parody of the (coming-of-age ceremony) of a minister, with most of the celebrants represented by courtesans

is a Japanese coming-of-age ceremony which dates back to Japan's classical Nara period (710–794 AD).^[1] This ceremony marked the transition from child to adult status and the assumption of adult responsibilities. The age of participation varied throughout history and depended on factors such as sex, political climate, and social status. Most participants were aristocratic children between the ages of 10 and 20, and most descriptions of focus on the male ceremony rather than the female ceremony due to the exclusion of women from politically important court positions and warrior status. Important changes in clothing and hairstyle typically denoted this transition, for both men and women. Youth and children were often synonymous, and a period of adolescence was not often present throughout the periods in which traditional flourished. The etymology of the word, which is atypical, reflects the major points of ceremonial format; in this case means 'head' and means 'wearing'. The ceremony is also known as , , , , and .

General ceremonial format

was traditionally considered a major rite, an important ritual affecting life course in which a child exchanged his childhood status for an adult status, and continues from the Nara (710–794 AD) into the Tokugawa period (1603–1868). The ceremony was usually backed by an older society member of political importance, and included the exchange of a childhood name for a , the adoption of adult hairstyles and clothing, and the assumption of adult responsibilities. was undergone by both males and females, but was differentiated by ceremonial dress, with men receiving signifying headgear such as a or samurai helmet and women receiving, instead, a . The population, and members of the population, participating in depended largely upon both which historical time period the ceremony took place in and the kind of government that was in place at the time. Specific ceremonial formats are built around specific constructions of class, rank, and time period. Beyond the Nara, the ceremony flourished throughout the aristocratic Heian period (794–1185 AD), the last classical period in which Japan was governed by an aristocratic court. Children during Heian were not recognized as officially gendered before , and were said to have remained near the gods as "children of the ".

Once it was deemed an appropriate time for a child to undergo , a variety of preparations were made for the upcoming ceremony. The child had to acquire a "capping parent", usually a person of influence, who would help the child don the ritual clothing of adulthood, most significantly a ceremonial court hat (). At the time, when Japan was in a state of despair due to the defeat, Shojiro Takahashi, then the leader of the Youth League of Warabi Town (later the mayor of Warabi City), hosted a youth festival in order to give hope and encouragement to the young people who would bear Japan's future. The festival was held in a tent on the school grounds of Warabi First Elementary School (currently North Warabi Elementary School), which included the Adulthood Ceremony.

The first holiday

Inspired by Warabi's youth festival, the Japanese government promulgated and enacted the National Holidays Law in 1948, to be held every year on January 15. The official holiday aimed "to realise the passage from youth to adulthood, and to celebrate and encourage young people embarking on their adult lives".

In 1949, January 15 was designated as the Coming of Age Day to congratulate and exhort young people to become adults and live independently. This amendment is called the Happy Monday System because it makes a long weekend (Saturday – Monday). In addition, according to a survey conducted around 2018, Nagoya City and Morotsuka Village in the Higashiusuki District, Miyazaki Prefecture also claim to be the birthplace of the Coming of Age Ceremony.

Japan's low birth rate and shrinking percentage of young people, coupled with disruptions to some ceremonies in recent years (such as an incident in Naha in 2002, when drunken Japanese youths tried to disrupt the festivities) and a general increase in the number of 20-year-olds who do not feel themselves to be adults have led to decreased attendance of the ceremonies, which has caused some concern among older Japanese. In 2012, the decline continued for the fifth year in a row, with a total of 1.22 million adults celebrating the holiday in 2012 – under half of the participants seen at its peak in 1976, when 2.76 million adults attended ceremonies. This was the first time it has declined below the 50% threshold. Japan lowered the age of adulthood in 2018 from 20 years of age to 18 which took effect in 2022. This change has caused confusion on the status of the holiday, and raised concerns among the kimono industry which profits from the garments worn during the ceremonies.

Ceremonies

thumb|upright=2.5|Men's and women's formal traditional dress; dark , and with patterns

thumb|Women celebrate , the modern day equivalent of .

mark one's ending of coming of age (age of maturity), which reflects both the expanded rights but also increased responsibilities expected of new adults. The ceremonies are generally held in the morning at local city offices throughout Japan. All young adults who turned or will turn 18 between April 2 of the previous year and April 1 of the current one and who maintain residency in the area are invited to attend. Government officials give speeches, and small presents are handed out to the newly recognized adults.

During the ceremony, guest speakers give lectures, and commemorative gifts are presented. It is not sponsored by the Japanese government but by each municipality independently. Therefore, although the school-age system, which determines the eligibility for participation, is the same everywhere, some municipalities hold the event on days other than the Coming of Age Day. The age of adulthood was lowered from 20 to 18 on April 1, 2022. However, some municipalities continue to set the age eligible for participating in the ceremony at 20, while others have lowered it to 18.

Many women celebrate this day by wearing , a style of kimono with long sleeves that hang down, and sandals. Since most are unable to put on a kimono by themselves due to the intricacies involved, many choose to visit a beauty salon to dress and to set their hair. A full set of formal clothing is expensive, so it is usually either borrowed from a relative or rented rather than bought especially for the occasion. Men sometimes also wear traditional dress (e.g. dark kimono with ), but nowadays many men wear formal Western clothes such as a suit and tie more often than the traditional . After the ceremony, the young adults often celebrate in groups by going to parties or going out drinking.

Date

The ceremony is commonly held on the Coming of Age Day, but there are regional variations. Some municipalities hold it during Golden Week (a week from late April to early May when Japanese holidays follow one after another), Obon (days to honor one's ancestors), or January 1–3. For example, in Niigata prefecture in 2017, no city held it on the Coming of Age Day (January 8); two were on January 7, and all others were during March, April, May, or August. It is because these areas have high snowfall, and many young people are out of town and do not come back until Golden Week or Obon. Many ceremonies were canceled or postponed in 1989 due to the death of the Emperor, and in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Eligibility

Initially, eligible people to participate in the Coming of Age Ceremony were those with birthdays between the day after the Coming of Age Day of the previous year and that of the current year. So for the ceremony held on January 15, 1999, participants must have been born after January 15, 1980 (19 years ago), until January 14, 1981 (18 years ago). However, recently (especially since the introduction of the Happy Monday System), the school-age system has become more common. In the Japanese school system, a grade consists of students born between April 2 of a year and April 1 of the subsequent year. Today, those who legally become adults between April of the previous year and March of the current year are eligible to participate in the ceremony.

This new practice caused a problem. If the eligibility for the Coming of Age Ceremony is based on the school age, those born after the Coming of Age Day and before April 2 must attend the ceremony a year later than their peers. Consequently, they often have fewer friends to celebrate with at the ceremony.

alt=File:Coming of Age Ceremony 2001.jpg|thumb|Coming of Age Ceremony 2001

alt=File:Coming of Age Ceremony 2002.jpg|thumb|Coming of Age Ceremony 2002

Due to the Happy Monday system, there were some people who were still 19 years old at the Coming of Age Ceremony for the year, but they would become 21 years old at the ceremony of the following year. For example, as shown in the January 2001 calendar, a person born on the second Monday, January 12, 1981, was still 19 years old on the Coming of Age Day (January 8, 2001), but the same person became 21 years old on the Day in 2002. The same problem occurred for those born between January 10–13 in 1992 and January 9–13 in 1998.

Additionally, in Sapporo and Hiroshima, the calendar year system was used in which those who reached their 20th birthday between January 1 and December 31 of the past year were eligible to participate in the Coming of Age Ceremony. This system has been switched to the school-age system since 2000.

Until the 1960s, more than half of the new adults were working youths who had already entered society. However, since the 1970s, the number of students entering universities and vocational schools has increased, while the number of junior high school and high school graduates finding employment has decreased. Consequently, the ratio of students (rather than working youth) to all new adults has been increasing year by year.

The Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications estimated the population of new adults in January 2020 to be 1.22 million. Its percentage in comparison to the total population had been below 1% for 10 consecutive years. The city had 30 foreign-born participants in 2019, about 6% of the total participating adults.

The ceremony also represents a significant commercial opportunity for the beauty industry. Businesses involved in clothing, cosmetics, and hairstyling provide services for attendees, including makeup workshops for those beginning to wear makeup more regularly, as well as the sale of cosmetic products. Photo studios offering commemorative photography for formally dressed participants also intensify their advertising efforts during this period. As a result, competition among related industries has become increasingly intense.

In 2018, Harenohi, a company that sells (long-sleeved kimono) in Yokohama and other cities, abruptly shut down its business on January 8, the Coming of Age Ceremony day. This incident caused an uproar because those who had made reservations to purchase or rent a from the company were unable to wear it, and some had to cancel their participation in the ceremony.

Problems

According to the public opinion survey conducted by the Yokohama City Board of Education in March 2004, among minors, new adults, and people in their 20s, approximately 20% to 30% viewed the Coming of Age Ceremony as an event like a reunion where friends meet again. Furthermore, 20% of the women in their 20s or younger responded that the ceremony is an event where new adults meet in formal suits and festive clothes. This result suggests that the event's purpose and the target group's expectations are divergent.

In this survey, 82.7% of high school students and minors said that they wanted to participate in the ceremony, while 17.2% said they did not. Among high school students and minors, the most common reason for not participating was "not interested in the content," at 36.8%. While more than 50% of high school students, minors, and new adults answered that attractions such as concerts by singers were necessary, half of them also answered that introductions of guests such as mayors and politicians were unnecessary. The Yokohama City's proposal determines that such components make the ceremony lengthy and impoverish the content.