When April arrives, staff from Myanmar often ask, “Could I take a little time off?” Many HR professionals have had this experience. Behind it is Myanmar’s largest annual event, the Water Festival (Thingyan). Understanding this festival correctly—comparable in cultural weight to combining Japan’s New Year, summer festivals, and Obon—is an essential perspective for anyone responsible for hiring and retaining Myanmar talent.

According to Ministry of Justice statistics on foreign residents in Japan (as of the end of June 2024), the number of Myanmar nationals living in Japan has reached about 63,000—roughly 3.5 times the roughly 18,000 recorded in 2019, in just five years. As more companies hire Myanmar talent across manufacturing, food processing, nursing care, agriculture, construction, and other fields, cases where a lack of understanding of cultural festivals leads directly to turnover risk have been appearing one after another.

This article explains Thingyan in practical terms—from its cultural and religious background to how to handle actual leave requests and how to shape the workplace atmosphere. We go beyond the simple fact that “Myanmar has a water festival” and focus on how to turn that knowledge into support for workplace retention.

What Is Thingyan: The New Year Festival at the Heart of Myanmar Buddhist Culture

Thingyan is a water-throwing festival held just before the New Year on Myanmar’s lunisolar calendar. It typically begins around April 13 and lasts four to five days. Myanmar New Year (Ah Tett Tain) falls on the day after the festival ends. In 2026, the festival period was April 13–16, and April 17 was the first day of Myanmar calendar year 1388. In 2027 as well, the festival period is expected to fall in mid-April.

The central meaning of the festival is “purification and renewal.” In Myanmar’s Buddhist worldview, the heavenly king Thagyamin is said to descend to earth at this time, record people’s good and bad deeds, and take them back to the heavens. Throwing water on one another is a ritual act meant to wash away the sins and impurities of the old year and welcome the new year with a pure heart. It is neither mere recreation nor a simple entertainment event, but a spiritual milestone bound to deep faith.

During the festival period in Myanmar, temporary stages (mandat) are set up in the streets, and music, dance, and traditional performances take place day after day. People spend time with relatives and friends, and merit-making acts such as temple visits, offerings to monks on alms rounds, and visits to facilities for the elderly are also widely practiced. For this event—where the feel of New Year, Obon, and a local summer festival are condensed at once—the first thing hiring managers need is a concrete sense of just how important it is.

In Myanmar, Thingyan is a national holiday lasting about five days, and government offices, schools, and many private companies close. For Myanmar talent living in Japan, this period feels comparable to Japan’s Golden Week—one of the most special times of the year.

Where Thingyan Stands Today in Japan’s Myanmar Talent Communities

According to Ministry of Justice statistics on foreign residents in Japan (as of the end of June 2024), about 63,000 Myanmar nationals live in Japan. By status of residence, Technical Intern Training accounts for about 20,000, Specified Skilled Worker about 15,000, and Permanent Residents and Long-Term Residents more than about 10,000, with the remainder including Student, Dependent, Highly Skilled Professional, and others. Basics of hiring foreign workers are covered here as well; Myanmar talent tends to be highly rated by employers for diligence and cooperativeness.

In Japan as well, Myanmar communities have formed in places such as Tokyo, Saitama, Osaka, Nagoya, and Ota City in Gunma Prefecture, and Thingyan events are held across the country every April. Organizers reported that the Myanmar Water Festival event held at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo in 2024 drew a cumulative attendance of more than 10,000 people. Events are often scheduled around weekends, so simply knowing that “the weekends of the second and third weeks of April are likely to overlap with community events” can change how shift managers start coordinating.

Thingyan is also tied to “cultural identity as a Myanmar person” not only for Theravada Buddhists but also for Christian Myanmar people such as the Karen, Kachin, and Chin. Because many Myanmar people, regardless of religion, see it as a “special time,” it is more realistic for hiring managers to approach staff with the shared understanding that “this season is emotionally important for them” than to focus on differences in response by religion.

According to a survey by an HR consulting firm (conducted in 2023 among 300 Myanmar people working in Japan), 78% of those who said they received considerate words from the workplace during the Thingyan period answered that they “want to work at this workplace for a long time,” while among those who said there was “no consideration at all,” that figure was only 41%. A single act of cultural care can create roughly a 1.9-fold difference in retention intent.

Common On-the-Ground Issues: Leave Requests, Family Contact, and Emotional Shifts

Common on-the-ground issues fall into the following three patterns.

Issue pattern 1: Concentrated paid leave requests

This is when multiple Myanmar staff request paid leave at the same time during the Thingyan period (mid-April). In manufacturing workplaces, cases have been confirmed in which all Myanmar staff—five or more—apply at once. Legally, employers may exercise the right to change the timing of leave when it would “interfere with the normal operation of the business” (see e-Gov Law Search, Labor Standards Act, Article 39, paragraph 5). However, answering immediately with “We don’t allow leave at that time” without hearing the circumstances of the request greatly damages trust. The standard for handling this is to visualize early “who needs how many days” and “how much impact there is on core hours,” and to work with staff on alternative shift plans.

Issue pattern 2: Lower concentration and emotional ups and downs around the festival

As Thingyan approaches, more staff feel a stronger pull toward home. This is a time when people more often want to video-call family, check news from Myanmar, or join community online events. This is not a sign of poor performance but a culturally and emotionally natural movement. If a supervisor feels someone “seems a little down lately,” it helps to use that as a chance to say, “This month is an important time in Myanmar,” before assuming a work problem. First-year staff in Japan are especially affected, and April is reported as the peak time when homesickness surfaces.

Issue pattern 3: Higher remittances and communication costs to family at home

Because Thingyan is also a time when families gather, cases of higher remittances and call costs to the home country are also reported. It is not unusual for monthly remittance amounts to rise to 1.5 to 2 times the usual level. Providing information in advance on whether wage advances are available and on mutual support within the community helps staff feel more secure. It is also effective as a small consideration to reconfirm internal rules on break-time use and clarify “when and where people may make calls.”

Failure Patterns and How to Avoid Them: Lack of Cultural Consideration Creates Turnover Risk

Knowing failure patterns and how to avoid them is one of the most effective measures for retention management after hiring.

Failure pattern 1: Dismissing it with “That festival doesn’t matter here”

Some workplaces, when receiving a leave request, answer immediately with “We only recognize Japanese public holidays” without even asking about the festival’s background. Staff feel that “my culture is not respected,” and their sense of belonging to the workplace drops sharply. Especially in the first to second year after joining, many begin considering a job change at this stage, which leads directly to lost hiring costs. With mid-career hiring costs for international talent said to average 800,000 to 1.5 million yen per person, early turnover caused by a lack of cultural consideration is a risk companies cannot ignore.

How to avoid it: Simply asking “What kind of event is it?” when leave is requested makes staff feel they were heard. Even when business reasons make it hard to grant leave as hoped, saying “It is difficult this year, but let’s plan earlier together next year” greatly changes how staff respond.

Failure pattern 2: Consideration for specific staff creates a sense of unfairness among others

Giving special leave only to Myanmar staff can create a sense of unfairness among Japanese staff and staff of other nationalities. Cultural consideration can unintentionally become a source of trouble. In workplaces with mixed nationalities, preferential treatment for only one nationality has been confirmed in multiple cases to lower team-wide morale.

How to avoid it: The principle is to respond within the framework of “special leave” or “planned granting of paid leave” in the work rules. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare page on measures for employing foreign nationals also sets out guidance calling for fair treatment of foreign workers. What matters is applying existing leave systems fairly to all staff while creating a workplace atmosphere in which leave is easy to take.

Failure pattern 3: Making cultural events company-led and mandatory

Planning an in-house Myanmar cultural event as part of retention support is often received positively. However, making participation mandatory or forcing it into working hours can instead create burden and pressure. Special care is needed when Myanmar staff are unilaterally made to serve as “culture explainers.” At one manufacturer, four Myanmar staff were asked to present during Diversity Month, and three of the four later said they felt they had been “made to do it.”

How to avoid it: Make events voluntary in principle, and put front and center a stance that respects how staff themselves want to spend the festival period. When the company researches basic information in advance, it can avoid over-relying on staff.

Points Hiring Managers Often Miss: How Calendar, Community, and Word of Mouth Connect

A point hiring managers often miss is that Thingyan may look like “one April event,” but it actually sits within a year-round accumulation of cultural understanding.

Myanmar’s calendar is basically lunisolar, with multiple milestones based on Buddhist observances such as Thadingyut (around October), the Kasone festival (around May), and the Tabaung festival (around February). Among them, Thingyan is the largest in scale and an identity event tied directly to the core of “being Myanmar.” Thin consideration here makes responses to other events reactive as well and leads to an organizational culture in which trust with staff is hard to build.

Even more important is the “word-of-mouth effect.” During the Thingyan period, Myanmar people actively connect with one another on SNS and video calls. Facebook is the most used SNS in Myanmar communities in Japan, with usage said to reach more than 90% of Myanmar people in Japan. If there is dissatisfaction with the workplace at this time, there is a risk that information such as “that workplace environment in Japan is hard” will spread to communities inside Myanmar. Conversely, a reputation that “that workplace is considerate even during Thingyan” leads directly to referral hiring of Myanmar talent. Recognizing that cultural consideration is not only “kindness” but also “hiring marketing” creates a difference in hiring competitiveness over the medium to long term.

Everyday workplace communication with Myanmar talent is explained in more detail in another article; day-to-day considerations not limited to the Thingyan period—such as how names are used, sense of honorifics, and views of hierarchy—support overall retention improvement. It is also essential to accurately understand that rights and treatment differ by status of residence, including Specified Skilled Worker and highly skilled foreign professionals, while referring to the explanation of status of residence for highly skilled foreign professionals. The Immigration Services Agency of Japan page on the Specified Skilled Worker system also lets you confirm employment conditions and renewal procedures by status of residence.

Response Flow: Six Steps to Take Before and After Thingyan

Here is the flow of actions HR should take before and after Thingyan, in step form and including decision criteria.

Step 1 (January–February): Register on the annual schedule

Provisionally register the start and end dates of Thingyan on the Myanmar calendar in the company calendar. Share peak and off-peak conditions that overlap with the same period with operations. The 2027 dates are expected to fall around April 13 as usual; we recommend confirming finalized information by early March at the latest.

Step 2 (early March): Advance hearing with staff

Ask individually or by survey, “Do you hope to take leave during the Thingyan period?” Collect preferred number of days and dates and match them against operations shift plans. There are also reports that simply conducting a hearing raises staff satisfaction scores by 15% to 20%.

Step 3 (mid-March): Adjust operations and set decision criteria

Match requested leave against business peaks and troughs, and if simultaneous leave for everyone is difficult, present a rotation plan. Clarify decision criteria in line with the work rules and explain them to staff. Carefully explaining “why some leave requests cannot be approved,” together with the legal basis, can minimize dissatisfaction.

Step 4 (late March to early April): Send considerate messages

Have supervisors or HR offer a brief word such as “Thingyan is an important time, isn’t it.” Deliver it as natural dialogue, not as something forced. Simply sending a short Thingyan introduction message to all staff by email or internal chat raises diversity awareness across the workplace.

Step 5 (during the April festival period): Confirm emergency contacts and required notifications

If any staff are temporarily returning home, confirm emergency contacts and planned return dates. Also check whether there are any changes that require employment status notification to Hello Work. Because the validity period of special re-entry permission is in principle within one year, it is essential to confirm planned departure and return dates in writing in advance.

Step 6 (late April): Review and apply lessons to the following year

Briefly hear about leave taken, impact on operations, and staff satisfaction. Use the findings to improve the following year’s response. Workplaces that continued this review for three years have also reported that management hours spent on leave coordination fell by an average of more than 30%.

Practical Checklist: 12 Confirmation Items for Thingyan Response

As a practical checklist, we recommend confirming the following 12 items at the start of the fiscal year.

  • Have the start and end dates of Thingyan on the Myanmar calendar been registered in the company calendar?
  • Do you have up-to-date information on the number of Myanmar staff, their statuses of residence, and employment types?
  • Have remaining paid leave days and take-up status been notified to each person as of March?
  • Is the procedure for handling concentrated leave requests documented in the work rules or internal rules?
  • Can you predict in advance from workload whether exercising the right to change leave timing will be necessary?
  • Is there a plan to hold individual meetings with Myanmar staff during March?
  • Are you prepared to explain fair treatment relative to Japanese staff and staff of other nationalities?
  • If anyone hopes to return temporarily to their home country, have you confirmed special re-entry permission procedures (see guidance from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan)?
  • Have you checked on e-Gov Law Search whether any cases during return home require notifications such as a change of workplace address, and reviewed the related provisions?
  • Have you planned a welcome-back word when people return to work after Thingyan?
  • Have you built a cultural events calendar for Myanmar talent into next year’s hiring plan?
  • Is there a plan to share short content introducing Thingyan on internal chat or notice boards?

In workplaces that can mark all 12 of these items as done, rates of sudden absences, unexcused lateness, and abrupt resignations linked to the Thingyan period tend to be markedly lower. Whether April shifts from “a month when problems are likely” to “a month for deepening relationships with staff” depends on whether preparation is in place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. A staff member wants to return home during Thingyan. Will there be a problem with their status of residence?

When holders of Specified Skilled Worker or Technical Intern Training status of residence return home temporarily, re-entry permission procedures (including special re-entry permission) are required. Before departure, check the residence card and passport and confirm that departure and re-entry will be completed within the validity period of re-entry permission. The validity period of special re-entry permission is in principle within one year. Details can be confirmed on the Immigration Services Agency of Japan guidance page. Missed procedures can affect status of residence, so we strongly recommend consulting specialists such as a gyoseishoshi administrative scrivener or a certified social insurance and labor consultant if anything is unclear.

Q2. Is Thingyan a Buddhist event? Is the same consideration needed for Christian Myanmar staff?

Thingyan has Theravada Buddhist religious coloring, yet it is also widely recognized as an ethnic and cultural New Year event. For Christian Myanmar people such as the Karen, Kachin, and Chin as well, it is an important time as “New Year as a Myanmar person.” It does not become religious compulsion, but it is desirable to hold toward everyone a stance of “respecting it as an important cultural event.”

Q3. Are Hello Work notifications still required as usual during the Thingyan period?

Companies that employ foreign workers have a duty to notify Hello Work (Public Employment Security Offices) at the timing of hiring and separation (based on the foreign national employment status notification system). If there is an employment change during the Thingyan period, file the notification by the end of the following month. Forms and procedures are posted on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare page on measures for employing foreign nationals.

Q4. We want to hold an in-house event introducing Thingyan. What should we watch out for?

The first principle is not to force Myanmar staff into the role of “explainer.” Introducing culture can be a joy for them, but it can also be a burden. Leave speaking to staff who want to do so voluntarily, while the responsible staff on the company side grasp basic information such as in this article in advance, which lowers dependence on staff. If you include water-throwing experiences, confirm usable space and cleaning arrangements beforehand. Even for voluntary events, participation by 60% or more of the whole is considered a benchmark of success.

Q5. Do staff from other Southeast Asian countries also have similar events around the same time?

Yes. Thailand’s Songkran, Laos’s Pi Mai, Cambodia’s Khmer New Year, and others are also water festivals and New Year events held around the same time (around April 13–15). Recognize April as an important month for multicultural consideration and build it into the annual leave management plan in advance. In workplaces with staff of multiple nationalities, simultaneous requests may overlap in this period, so conducting a consolidated hearing by mid-March is effective.

Conclusion: Cultural Understanding Creates Differences in Hiring Power and Retention

Myanmar’s Water Festival (Thingyan) is not merely an exotic overseas event. For Myanmar talent working in Japan, it is the largest annual event where family, homeland, faith, and identity intersect. Now that the number of Myanmar people in Japan has grown roughly 3.5 times versus 2019, organizations that “know nothing” and “cannot respond” at this time cannot protect the talent they worked hard to hire.

On the other hand, organizations that correctly understand Thingyan and can show consideration from the three angles of leave, communication, and the workplace environment become places where Myanmar staff feel they “want to work here for a long time.” That is a source of hiring competitiveness that leads to lower turnover, more referral hiring, and stronger diversity across the organization. As data showing that cultural consideration creates roughly a 1.9-fold difference in retention intent indicates, preparation that starts this very moment will change the workplace scene next April. To protect hiring costs said to run from 800,000 to 1.5 million yen per person as well, investment in cultural response is by no means an invisible cost.

If you would like individual consultation on recruiting and retaining Myanmar talent, please feel free to contact Foreign Talent Insights. We provide end-to-end support from the early stages of your hiring plan through status of residence confirmation, cultural accommodation, and post-joining follow-up.

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