Johor to Switch Weekend to Saturday-Sunday Starting January 2025

SEAToday.com, Johor - Johor, a Malaysian state, will change its weekend from Friday-Saturday to Saturday-Sunday starting January 1, 2025.

According to CNA, the news of the weekend change was announced by the Sultan of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, on Monday (10/7). Johor has observed Friday-Saturday as the weekend since January 2014.

This decision was made to provide Muslims with more opportunities to carry out their religious duties, as mandated by Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar.

The change to Saturday-Sunday was made after obtaining the Sultan's approval and considering the views of the Johor Islamic Religious Council, Tunku Ismail said in a Facebook post.

He has instructed the Johor Menteri Besar, Onn Hafiz Ghazi, and the Johor Mufti, Yahya Ahmad, to discuss and study every aspect of this matter.

"I hope that the private sector, government, and related parties will give sufficient time and space for Muslim workers to perform Friday prayers," the Sultan added.

In 2022, it was reported that the Johor state government was reviewing the weekend holiday. Onn Hafiz mentioned at the time that there were complaints from the public about the different holidays for the government and private sectors.

He explained that the state government would review the matter so that parents and their children could rest on the same day. Primary and secondary schools in Johor follow the weekend holidays set by the government.

It was stated that this change would affect approximately 576,000 students and more than 1.7 million workers in Johor, about 93 percent of whom work in the private sector.

According to Johor Jaya assemblyman, Liow Cai Tung, at that time, aligning the weekend holidays would also increase the state's productivity and efficiency.

The federal government operates on a Saturday-Sunday weekend, but some states such as Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu use Friday-Saturday as the weekend.

Before 2014, the weekend in Johor was Saturday-Sunday. When the review was announced in 2022, the Malay Mail news outlet quoted a source saying that the Johor state government might implement a two-and-a-half-day weekend, with half a day on Friday, as well as Saturday and Sunday, as rest days.

However, it was not mentioned whether this would happen in Tunku Ismail's announcement.

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