Relax, recharge, repeat...unless you're freelancing over Golden Week

With Golden Week almost here, a recent survey from freelance branding platform PE-BANK looked into how working people across Japan plan to spend the holidays. The results paint a picture that feels pretty familiar for many of us living here, especially those who freelance or work outside the typical corporate structure.

The most common number of consecutive holidays people said they'd get was four days. Only 8 percent said they'd get ten days or more, while 16.3 percent said they'd have no consecutive days off at all. That number jumps even higher for freelancers and the self-employed, at 40 percent and 29.4 percent respectively. It seems that flexible schedules often come with the tradeoff of not taking time off when the rest of the country does.

Depending on what you do for work, you might find that Golden Week doesn't offer the same amount of time off as other people have.

As for how people plan to spend the break, the majority said they'd just relax at home, and almost half said they don't plan to spend anything extra. Rising prices were a common concern, with many respondents saying it's simply too expensive to travel or make special plans this year. Even among those who weren't convinced that long breaks help with work performance, the most common reason was the cost involved in taking time off.

Another interesting point from the survey is the mindset around work. About 40 percent of overall respondents said they don't think about work at all during the holidays. On the other hand, when looking only at freelancer respondents, nearly 90 percent said they do think about work, whether occasionally or all the time. For people in the latter category, time off isn't always realistic, especially when taking a break means potentially losing income or falling behind on projects.

There was also a noticeable difference between freelancers and company employees in how they see long holidays. Around 10 percent of company employees said they were using the break to think seriously about quitting or changing jobs, suggesting that downtime can sometimes lead to big decisions.

As an expat living in Japan and working in a more flexible role myself, this all rings true. Golden Week sounds like a dream on paper, but in reality it doesn't always come with the kind of rest or celebration you might expect. For many freelancers, it's just another week.