Japan: Extended holiday period (29 April 2019 to 6 May 2019)
Reference
Clearstream Banking1 informs customers that Japan will see the accession of a new emperor and the National Diet (of Japan) has designated Wednesday, 1 May 2019, as a one-off national holiday to celebrate the enthronement occasion.
Presently, Japan’s holiday law stipulates that any weekday falling between national holidays becomes a holiday. With the new emperor’s enthronement taking place on 1 May 2019, and when combined with existing mandated 2019 holidays, the upcoming holiday period will take place from Monday, 29 April 2019 to Monday, 6 May 2019 (otherwise also known as the Golden Week).
Date | Day | Holiday description |
29 April 2019 | Monday | Showa Day (2019 mandated holiday) |
30 April 2019 | Tuesday | Automatically made a holiday |
1 May 2019 | Wednesday | Coronation Day (one-off holiday) |
2 May 2019 | Thursday | Automatically made a holiday |
3 May 2019 | Friday | Constitution Day (2019 mandated holiday) |
6 May 2019 | Monday | Children’s Day Observed (2019 mandated holiday) |
Impacts on customers
During the long national holidays, banks, securities exchanges and central securities depositories (both JASDEC and the Bank of Japan) will be closed.
There will be no external settlement, JPY cash transfers or asset servicing (corporate actions and/or income payment) from 29 April 2019 to 6 May 2019 (both dates inclusive). Internal settlement will still be possible throughout this period.
Securities and cash instructions received during the holiday period will be for the next business day (Tuesday, 7 May 2019). Customers are, therefore, reminded to take extra care to avoid settlement fails over this long holiday period, ensure that valid settlement/value dates are indicated when intending to settle before the start of the Golden Week, and ensure that all necessary provisioning is in place for timely settlement.
Customers should also note that negative interest rates are applied to long JPY balances, and should therefore pay special attention to their JPY cash management on Friday, 26 April 2019.
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1. Clearstream Banking refers collectively to Clearstream Banking S.A., registered office at 42, avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, and registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under number B-9248, and Clearstream Banking AG (for Clearstream Banking Frankfurt AG customers using Creation accounts), registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500.