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Slacker Appreciation Day — The secret, unofficial Japanese holiday we all want but don’t have:

Ingrid Tsai Jun 3, 2021
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All thanks to one friendly robot cat from the future.

Compared to the United States’ 10 national public holidays, Japan boasts 16 total, ranging from celebrating the new year to even a day to appreciate mountains in the late summer. But despite these bevy of dates, some providing a moment of rest and others celebrating culturally significant events, there are no public holidays for the month of December and June. Luckily, however, for residents of Japan, anime/manga Doraemon has everyone unofficially covered for the month of June with “Slacker Appreciation Day” on June 2.

We owe Slacker Appreciation Day to a story in the manga’s 14th collected volume, where the titular robot cat supplies human pal Nobita with a gadget called the “Japan Standard Calendar.” The device allows the user to create national holidays, and Nobita wastes no time in creating Slacker Appreciation Day, on which all work magically (or science fictionally, really) comes to a stop and he can enjoy a nice nap.

▼ The original comic panels

pic.twitter.com/3bWXdKFhla

— あさみめぐる (@asami_meguru) June 1, 2021

Granted, Slacker Appreciation Day isn’t an official holiday, and this doesn’t mean people can actually get away with lazing around on June 2, but certainly the holiday invented by Doraemon has resonated with many. After all, who doesn’t crave those lackadaisical days where the hours pass by while you just play video games or engage with your favorite hobbies the entire time?

▼ My deepest apologies to the head editors of SoraNews24, but I gotta catch my beauty nap for Slacker Appreciation Day—see ya!

With much amusement and agreement, Japanese netizens gathered online to trade jokes and muse about the implications of Slacker Appreciation Day:

“Good night, everyone!”
“Totally forgot about this, but time to take a break!!!”
“Everything would probably ground to a halt in Japan if this was a holiday.”
“Forget national public holiday, I want every single day of my life to be Slacker Appreciation Day.”
“There was a Slacker Appreciation Day all along…?”
“While I really want this, if this was an established holiday, it would actually be pretty inconvenient.”

Will Japanese folks ever get a national public holiday in June? Who knows for the near future, but with the ubiquitous and celebrated presence of Doraemon as well as this non-established, cheeky holiday the franchise invented, you never know when reality imitates art.

Source: Twitter/@livedoornews via Jin
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Insert images: Pakutaso
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