Today is kinro kansha day, a public holiday to recognise and appreciate the workers. The timing just about coincides with American thanksgiving, and although the day was instituted during American occupation (in 1948). The origins are apparently in much older a festival, Niiname-sai, which marked the end of the rice harvest.
We have spent the day endeavouring to be appreciative. It is much more uplifting than dwelling on the irony of a day set aside to appreciate workers while on the remaining 355 days workers are discouraged from taking holidays, sick days, where full time work with attached benefits is a pipe dream for many young people, and where the Japanese lexicon has a word, karoshi, which means death from overwork.
Long live genuine appreciation!
