TOKYO: The Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Friday enacted a bill to move national holidays to around the days when the opening and closing ceremonies for next year’s Tokyo Olympics are held.

The bill to revise a special measures law for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics was approved at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, by a majority vote, with support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito. The bill cleared the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, last week.

Next year’s Sports Day holiday will be brought forward from Oct. 11 to July 23, when the opening ceremony is scheduled to take place, while Marine Day will be moved back from July 19 to July 22, the eve of the opening ceremony. Mountain Day will be moved to Aug. 8, the day of the closing ceremony, from Aug. 11.

The changes are aimed at boosting the momentum for the Tokyo Games and alleviate traffic congestion.

The Japanese government initially planned to move Mountain Day to Aug. 9. But many in the LDP opposed the plan because the day will mark the 76th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki in 1945, leading the government to change the plan and decide instead on shifting the national holiday to Aug. 8, a Sunday, and making the following Monday a substitute holiday.

JIJI Press