"Sunday this week" or "Sunday next week"


I am wondering about the history about the beginning of the week. Although
some recent calendars start their week on Monday, "traditionally", the
Japanese start their week on Sunday (so that 今週の日曜日 will always be in the
past). But this is a fairly new tradition.

Why was Sunday made the beginning of the week when Japan adopted the Gregorian
calendar?

There is a lunar calendar (睦月, 如月, 弥生, etc.) and a solar calendar (七十二候).
Furthermore, there is the concept of auspicious days, in which a week has 6
days and a bunch more of calendar-type conventions.

Do any of these contain a "Sunday" as beginning of their respective concepts
of a week?




<http://no-sword.jp/blog/2010/09/dawn_of_the_week.html>

> It seems that the first people in Japan to adopt "the week" (as something
> other than a divinatory tool) did so because they had no choice: they were
> dealing with European or American traders in Yokohama, or they were working
> alongside "hired foreigners" in government, education, or the military. It
> made no sense for them to turn up to work when your trading partners or co-
> workers were taking the day off, or vice versa.
>
> Okada doesn't mention why the Meiji government didn't just write "must work
> on Sundays" into their contracts for hired help, but the religious component
> was probably a factor. Back then more Christians took the Sabbath seriously.
> In any case, if all of your external consultants say "a seven-day week with
> 1.5 days off is the only way to run a government/army/school," eventually
> you're going to start to believe it.




I asked colleagues on the 2012/08/30 - so previous and next sundays are the
26th and the 3rd - about this because I did not have issue so far and I got
curious.

> 14:56 (oldergod)
> 今週の日曜日ってゆうたら、３日の事になりますか？それか２６日のことですか？週は日曜日から始まるからこうゆうたらどっちに当たるんでしょう？  
>  14:59 (tanaka) 普通は26日だと思います。少なくとも、私はそう思っています。  
>  15:00 (Yoshida) 本来は週の初めは日曜日なんですが、感覚的に月曜日が週の初めという人も多いので  
>  15:01 (Yoshida) 日曜日に関しては、今週の～とか使わないのが良いなと思っています。  
>  15:01 (tanaka) まあ、「この前の日曜」「次の日曜」と言った方が安全ですよね。

