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I'm confused about this sign. It states working hours. The first part is easy: weekdays is 9:30 to 20:00. The second part is strange. Instead of saying 週末・祭日 (weekends and holidays), it says "Sundays and holidays". Which leave me with the question: what about Saturday?

  • Is it considered weekend?
  • Is 日曜 sometimes used to describe weekends?
  • Is it customary in some places to work on Saturday in Japan (like we have some shops open on Saturday with shorten hours but closed on Sunday)?
  • Is it just quirk of some random store and I just got lucky and confused on nothing?
  • Or is there something else?

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Peter Mortensen
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Nexen
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1 Answers1

17

Is it considered weekend?

Yes, Saturdays are usually regarded as part of 週末. They are usually not regarded as 平日.

Is 日曜 sometimes used to describe weekends?

No. 日曜 means "Sunday". Nothing more or less.

Is it customary in some places to work on saturday in Japan (like we have some shops open on saturday with shorten hours but closed on sunday)?

It depends on the shop, but generally speaking, most stores and restaurants in Japan are open also on Saturdays and Sundays. In the case of this store, it's actually open for longer hours on Sundays and national holidays than on "weekdays", which is not at all uncommon in Japan.

When you see a tricky sign like this, you should interpret that 平日 includes Saturdays, too. In Japan, there is no custom of closing stores just on Saturdays. Therefore, in this case, it's safe to assume that this 平日 is used to mean "all other days that are not 日曜 or 祭日". So this store is open from 9:30 to 20:00 on Saturdays.

The same applies to train timetables like this:

飯田線時刻表

Of course trains run also on Saturdays, and they do so according to the 平日 table. That said, this timetable is admittedly confusing, and it would be better to say "平日・土曜" explicitly.

naruto
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