Back-to-school / new semester F2P checklist (KR, JP, US variants)
Operator checklist for KR, JP and US semester starts: calendar anchors and midcore session-pattern checks without inventing CPI.
Semester starts change session patterns for midcore more than casual. This checklist forces dated calendar rows for Korea, Japan and the United States before a “back to school” flight. Official holiday overviews: Korea.net Holidays, JNTO Japan holiday calendar, timeanddate US holidays. School-term start dates are set by education authorities and local boards; they are not identical to public holidays and must be confirmed per year and prefecture/district.
Operator checklist
- Separate three calendars: Do not run one global “BTS” flight date for KR+JP+US.
- KR: Note national holidays that collide with semester windows from Korea.net; confirm academic-year start with a current Ministry/education source before locking.
- JP: Use JNTO’s holiday calendar for national holidays; confirm学期開始 with school-board or publisher local ops — national holidays alone are insufficient.
- US: Labor Day and local district calendars differ; timeanddate US holidays is a public-holiday index, not a nationwide school-start law.
- Creative: Avoid assuming “kids returning” imagery where the title’s rated audience is 17+ midcore adults.
- Live-ops sync: Align battle-pass resets and energy gifts with the local first-week-of-term window you actually documented.
- Measurement: Tag cohorts by geo+week so post-holiday organic uplift is not misread as paid efficiency.
Facts vs limits
| Field | Evidence or limit |
|---|---|
| KR holiday overview | Korea.net Holidays page |
| JP holiday calendar | JNTO holiday calendar |
| US public holidays index | timeanddate US holidays |
| Exact 2026 school-start dates | Not certified on these pages — confirm locally |
| CPI / retention uplift | Not claimed |
This is an ops hygiene sheet, not a market-size essay.
