(FORTUNE Magazine) – Sony Chief Executive Norio Ohga, 61, will be heading for Austria this August. The former professional opera singer and amateur conductor wants to attend the Salzburg Music Festival. Also in August, Keizo Yamaji, 63, of Canon, will fly to Hong Kong, where he plans to do some shopping. For other Japanese CEOs, staying at or close to home seems to be the favored summer vacation pursuit (see table for a sampling of what they'll do while they're there). But some chief executives and many Japanese workers won't be taking a vacation at all. A recent study by the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations shows that nearly 15% of companies do not encourage their employees to take a summer break. Such workaholism flies in the face of the Japanese government, which for years has been urging people to take more time off, including two-day weekends and three separate five-day breaks to enjoy January's shogatsu, or New Year's holiday, May's Golden Week, and another week in the summer. Less than 30% of workers observe all three vacations, and only 37% of them take off whole two- day weekends, in part because so many employers still expect them to come in Saturday. The government's sell isn't being helped by Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. He canceled his vacation last year because of the Gulf crisis. This summer a crowded schedule, including a visit to China and Mongolia, may force him to cancel again. Kaifu has taken some criticism from the press for not observing the government's own dictum. After all, don't other heads of state, like President Bush, find time to relax? Comes the snippy reply from a Kaifu aide: ''That's just not possible in Japan.''

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE CHART CAPTION: HOW JAPAN'S CEOs WILL VACATION