Holidays in Japan

Official national public holidays. Regional and religious observances may vary by area.

About Time in Japan

Standardizing Time in the Railway Age

Before Japan's rapid modernization in the late 19th century, each town kept its own local time, set by the position of the sun overhead. That worked well enough while people rarely traveled far from home, but it broke down once railways began connecting the country.

A train leaving Tokyo would reach Osaka about 20 minutes behind Tokyo time, simply because the two cities sit roughly 5 degrees of longitude apart and each still measured noon locally. Coordinating timetables across gaps like that was becoming impossible. In 1886 the government issued Ordinance No. 51, fixing 135 degrees east longitude as the country's single standard meridian, effective from January 1, 1888.

The city of Akashi in Hyogo Prefecture happens to sit almost exactly on that meridian, and it still markets itself today as the "Town of Time" because of it.

Skipping a Month to Save Money: The 1873 Calendar Reform

Japan's move to the Gregorian calendar had less to do with astronomy than with the government's finances. Under the old lunisolar calendar, the coming year, Meiji 6, was due to include an extra intercalary month, meaning the newly cash strapped government would have owed its officials 13 monthly salaries instead of the usual 12.

The solution was abrupt. On November 9, 1872, the government announced that the day after December 2, 1872 would simply become January 1, 1873, under the Gregorian calendar. This erased the final weeks of that year from the official record, along with the extra salary payment, and also shortened December 1872 itself to just two days.

The writer and economist Fukuzawa Yukichi helped explain the reform to a confused public, and Japan became the first country in East Asia to adopt the Gregorian calendar nationwide.

One Time Zone, Ninety Minutes of Sun

Japan keeps a single time zone, UTC plus 9, across its entire territory. That sounds tidy on paper, but the geography stretches much further than a single zone was ever really built for.

Yonaguni Island, the westernmost inhabited point of Japan, sits at roughly 123 degrees east longitude. Cape Nosappu in eastern Hokkaido, the easternmost point reachable by ordinary travel, sits at close to 146 degrees east. That is a span of about 23 degrees, wide enough that several countries would split it into two or three separate time zones.

In practice, solar noon in Yonaguni arrives around 48 minutes after the clock strikes twelve, while in eastern Hokkaido the sun reaches its highest point roughly 43 minutes before the clock does. Both places show exactly the same time on any clock, even though the sun above them runs on schedules close to an hour and a half apart.

Frequently Asked Questions