A diary that stays open on 祝日
It is Sports Day. You are not working. Your booking page has been taking appointments for it since March.
Turn on Japanese public holidays in the availability schedule and every 祝日 closes automatically. Do not try to do it with all-day calendar events — they are created as Free and block nothing.
Why tools built elsewhere get this wrong#
Japan has sixteen public holidays, several of which move each year — 春分の日 and 秋分の日 are set by the equinoxes, Happy Monday holidays shift, and a holiday falling on a Sunday produces a substitute the following day. Software built for countries with fixed holidays has nothing to hang that on.
So the diary stays open, and either you close each one by hand every year or you take a booking on a day nobody is working.
The all-day event trap#
The obvious workaround is an all-day event in Google Calendar. It does not work: Google creates all-day events as Free by default, and free time is not busy time, so a booking system reading your calendar will go on offering the whole day.
This one catches people out repeatedly, because the event is visibly sitting there in the calendar doing nothing.
One tick#
In Booking → Availability, tick Block Japanese public holidays (国民の祝日). Every 祝日 is then closed all day, automatically, with no list to maintain. If your time zone is Asia/Tokyo it is already on.
The next few months of holidays are listed underneath, so you can see exactly what will close. Public holidays
The holiday you do work#
Plenty of businesses are busiest on a holiday. Open one with a date override: add the date, give it hours, and it appears struck through in the holiday list marked opened by override. Opening a holiday
And the closures that are not holidays#
Obon, New Year, a week away — date overrides with no hours. It is the right tool for closing a day, and it is unambiguous in a way an all-day calendar event is not.
A date override stops new bookings. Anything already booked stays booked, so check the dates you are closing and cancel them yourself so your customers are told.
Common questions
How do I close my booking calendar on Japanese public holidays?
Tick Block Japanese public holidays in the availability schedule. Every 祝日 closes automatically, including the ones whose dates move each year.
Why does an all-day event in Google Calendar not block the day?
Google creates all-day events as Free by default, and a booking system reads busy time. Use a date override instead, which is unambiguous.
Can I open a specific holiday I do work?
Yes — add a date override for that date with hours on it. The holiday list then shows it struck through as opened by override.
Set this up in about ten minutes
Business Box is free for as long as you like, with no card required — booking pages, Google and Outlook calendar sync, availability, Japanese public holidays and the website widget. Taking card payment for bookings is ¥1,200 a month, tax included, with no commission on what you sell.
Last reviewed 28 September 2026.