While we’re on the topic of funny Japanese holidays, I found a very old news article in Reuters that really intrigued me, about a company in Tokyo that gives time off to its employees for the most unusual reasons.

Hime & Co. is a cosmetics and personal goods firm run mostly by women, whose concerns veer slightly off the straight and true path of the typical Japanese salaryman. Their chief executive — also a woman, has instigated a program that gives time off for its employees to deal with bad break-ups.

Understanding full well that time heals all wounds, employees can ask for a day off on top of their sick and vacation leave allocations to cry their eyes out after the end of a relationship. Older women in the company also get additional “heartbreak holidays” over the younger employees, since they are said to be more attached to their former partners and are less likely to bounce back in a short span of time.

Aside from “heartbreak holidays”, employees also get several mornings off every year to attend sales and special events, with the condition that they report for work in the afternoon and open their parcels in front of officemates for vicarious shopping show-and-tell. That is so awesome that I don’t even have words for it. I hope this company never closes, as I have plans of applying with them when I move to Tokyo (hahaha no :/).