April 1st is the Season of New Beginnings in Japan

Today is April 1st, famous in the West as April Fool’s Day, a custom that’s been imported to Japan in limited form. While some smaller companies or kawatteru (unique) individuals might go out of their way to create April Fool’s jokes for the amusement of all, it’s unthinkable that a larger organization would engage in such tomfoolery in straight-laced Japan. When I told the Japanese staff of J-List about the legendary 1957 news report the BBC did on the Swiss spaghetti crop that featured farmers “harvesting” the pasta they had “grown,” they were shocked — you’d never catch NHK doing something like that. April 1st is also the beginning of anything official in this part of the world, for cultural reasons that I can’t quite fathom, although knowing Japan it’s probably a cherry blossom thing. The Japanese fiscal year starts today, so if you live in Japan, I hope you got your taxes filed before last night. Also, new laws usually kick in on April 1st, like the near-total ban on smoking in many JR train stations in Tokyo which went into effect this morning. The school year also starts in April, and the blooming of the sakura create a powerful image of new beginnings for misty-eyed parents as they watch their children start the first day of school.

April 1st is the season of new beginnings in Japan.