Japanese people tired of pinching pennies

In Japan, it's believed that the spirits of our ancestors come back to see their descendants around the 15th of August, so there is a tradition of visiting family graves during that time. It is referred to as Obon/お盆. Because of this tradition, many factories temporarily suspend their production for a few weeks around the 13th to the 16th of August in order to give their employees a long holiday. Even people working for other companies still tend to take their summer holidays around this time, although recently more and more people take them during other periods in the summer to avoid the peak season crowds. 

Elderly parents, especially those living far from their children, expect them to come home during the Obon period. This is mostly because older generations consider it to be a traditional day of family gathering. In contrast, younger people tend not to want to go back in part because the return home costs them a lot more money than they would like to spend. In addition, many of them want to take advantage of their long holiday and travel overseas, since the summer holiday is the longest holiday for many workers.

According to the news, this year, a lot more people are expected to depart for foreign countries during the Obon period than last year because of the strong Japanese Yen and people being tired of pinching pennies（節約疲れ in Japanese). because of many people being tired of pinching pennies these days, プチ贅沢 is a catch phrase to appeal to consumers. プチ/puchi is from the French word "petit," and 贅沢/zeitaku means luxury, so the phrase means spending a little more money than usual to make yourself happy. Yesterday, McDonald's Japan announced that it had been very successful during the first half of this year due to high sales of new burgers costing four to five US dollars each. This is significantly more expensive than ordinary burgers, and the new burgers were introduced in order to meet the needs of customers desiring プチ贅沢. 

It's been said that many Japanese people try to save a high proportion of their disposable income, regardless of the state of the Japanese economy. As a matter of fact, the high propensity of the Japanese to save has enabled Japan to avert a critical crisis, as it is able to borrow locally to finance its budget deficit. On top of that, it's known that the number of suicides in Japan has been increasing for years. Some of the Japanese elite are suffering from depression.Given these circumstances, if people can afford it, they sometimes spend a little extra money to help ease their stress, not considering it extravagant.

It's said that Japan could get enmeshed in an irreversible situation like Greece if our government doesn't take action as soon as possible. Because of this, the hike in consumption tax from five percent to ten percent is being discussed. I'm sure that the hike will be enforced sooner or later.

Anyway, every time summer comes around, I start wanting to listen to the following song. I think that this song reminds many Japanese of the old days.