Where's summer?

I think I might have tempted the weather gods too much with my previous post extolling the sunny June we were enjoying. In response the deities have unleashed some torrential rain upon us for the past week and despite these being the longest days of the year, the gloomy grey rain clouds ensure it is dark by 7:30 in the evening. Adding to our seasonal despair is the fact that although it is July we are still 4 weeks away from the start of the summer holidays.
Yes, 4 weeks away. Sweet mother of educational Jesus.
By rights that should be in fact 6 weeks away for me (and 4 for Cian and Sanae). The end of the first term in the university is the 30th of July, and this is followed by a two week exam period, taking us up to August 14th. And only then, a mere fortnight away from the start of autumn, can the 'summer' holidays commence.
Matters aren't helped by the fact that Cian and Sanae will begin their holidays at the end of the third week of July but are then back in school by August 20th, which gives the Gaynor-Takahashi family a sum total of 6 days of shared holiday time.
Yes, 6 days. Sweet, sweet ripening fruit mother of educational Jesus.
Much is made in the media about Japan's fumbling attempts to 'globalize' its educational system and prepare its children for a cosmopolitan future. Hence, the seemingly annual plethora of initiatives launched by the Ministry of Education with aerily ambitious titles like 'Super Science High Schools', 'Super Global High Schools', and the 'Global 30 Universities'. A select number of schools are, well, selected for such 'super' designations, the principal super part of it all being the dollops of additional public funding they receive (which adds to the increasingly pervasive problem of educational inequality, but that's a post for another day).
A considerably cheaper and more equitable initiative in the country's attempt to become 'global' (whatever that means), would be to change its academic year. At the moment the Japanese academic year runs from April through to March, for all levels of education from primary to tertiary. Not many other countries maintain the same school calendar. This is in turn is a very large disincentive for both Japanese students thinking of studying abroad and for foreign students coming to Japan to study. (It should be noted that this 'start in April' ethos is not just confined to schools; the fiscal year also follows the same schedule).
A couple of years back the University of Tokyo announced that it was going to break with tradition and change its academic year to the global norm of September - June/July. Now, in the hierarchy of Japanese education, the University of Tokyo sits right at the top (and Muroran sits, or rather is squashed, somewhere at the bottom), so when Todai (as it is commonly known) says its going to change then the expectation is that the rest of educational world will hastily follow.
But not this time. Too many vested interests were opposed: corporate Japan and their established January to March milk rounds; civil service exams; various professional exam boards; not to mention the knock on effect this would have on high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools. So the plan died a despairing death and we continue with our April-March year.
Personally, I am a tad skeptical of this urgent need to 'globalize' (read: adhere to western imposed notions of education), but if it meant that we (Sanae, Cian, and myself) got longer summer holidays then hell yeah, bring on the Coca-Cola capitalism and let's hit the beaches by the end of June.