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Some Japanese holidays can greatly impact your trip—here’s what you need to know.
Plan Smart: Not All Holidays Are Equal
Japan has a lot of Public Holidays and also a couple of holidays that either do not appear on many calendars or have some extra days that do not appear on many calendars
For most holidays however, the inbound tourist to Japan for holiday will probably not even notice as most shops and tourist & other facilities will be open, and public transport will be operating.
There are however 3 “big” holidays that inbound visitors should be aware of:
End of Year / New Year (end December – early January)
Golden Week (End April – early May)
Obon (mid August)
See below for how these may effect your trip and why you may want to avoid these times.
There is also “Silver Week” which occurs some years in September. One holiday in September occurs on a fixed day (23rd), and one on the third Monday. Some years these holidays can be close together, so people add extra days.
See our FAQ below for more information on Japan holidays and how they may effect your holiday.
You also need to be aware that the days around a holiday, particularly the big holidays, may also be busy for travel. Our Japan Calendar shows not only the holidays but the busy travel periods as well.
The Three big Japan Holidays you should be aware of...
End of Year / New Year – End December to Early January
This is the big holiday in Japan . Most places will close early evening 31st December and will be closed on 1st January.
Shops & restaurants will start to reopen from 2nd January, with most places being open on the 4th January onwards. An exception is that most convenience stores will be open throughout the holiday and you will often find open restaurants in tourist areas and close by to shrines and temples.
Museums and most publicly run facilities will be closed from 31st December to 3rd January. You should also check other tourist facilities, as many will be closed on at least on the 1st January.
Lots of people travel to visit families and to tourist places and depending on how the holiday falls in relation to the weekends the busy travel period usually starts around 26th December, with the very busy period being 28th ~31st December out of the big cities, and 2nd to 5th January returning to the big cities. The 1st can also be busy with localised travel.
There are two special things that many Japanese will participate in during the New Year Holiday:
Hatsumode the first visit of the year to a shrine or temple to pray for a good year. Even the small local shrines and temples will be very busy from just after 12am on the 1st January, and the large shrines and temples will be extremely busy. The atmosphere though is something worth experiencing. At many of the big shrines and temples, that will be visited by millions of people in early January, there will be food stalls in the precincts or just outside.
The second, which depends on the weather, is to see the first sunrise of the year. At particularly scenic spots, and on or around mountains, many people will gather around (6am~7am depending on where in the country) to take pictures
Golden Week – Late April / Early May
Golden Week falls at the end of April to early May a period where there are 4 public holidays in 7 or 8 days. Many people will add personal days to the public holiday. The actual dates when travel will be busy depends on when the weekends fall (see our calendar).
Most shops, restaurants and tourist facilities, however, will remain open. Popular travel areas will be busy.
Like new year rail, road and air travel will be crowded and will get booked up quickly particularly at the start and end of the holiday.
In the areas that foreign tourists are likely to visit, most places should be open, including museums and publicly operated facilities and all tourist attractions. Most shops and restaurants except in very local areas will be open.
If you head north, you may see some sakura (cherry blossom) in northern Tohoku and parts of Hokkaido (but as weather dependent, there is no guarantee).
One of the holidays during Golden Week is Children’s Day and many families, and towns and villages will hang out Carp Streamers, particularly across rivers.
There are also many events all over the country as people relax with families and freinds. You may actually find the big urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka a lot quieter than normal as much of their populations has gone away.
Obon – Mid August
Beware, Obon is a Buddhist religious holiday that is widely observed in Japan although not a public holiday (so will not appear on many calendars). The dates are variable according to region, but in general most people observe it between 13th~15th August. Despite not being a public holiday, many businesses close down or at least slow down for Obon, and often the week surrounding Obon. Even for those whose work places do not close down, many people take their summer holiday at this time to visit family or travel to tourist places.
There is also a public holiday not related to Obon on the 11th August – (Mountain Day). Depending on when these dates fall relative to the weekends there can be up to 9 busy travel days in August.
In the areas that foreign tourists are likely to visit, most places should be open, including museums and publicly operated facilities and all tourist attractions. Most shops and restaurants except in very local areas will be open. The big cities may be quieter.
August as a whole, but particularly around Obon, there are many local festivals, (most of which are actually religious in nature). There are also many firework displays, which in Japan are usually quite spectacular.
Japan Holiday FAQ
Our advice is Yes. Although many extra trains are run during these periods, they will be crowded and there is a risk that you will need to stand for several hours. If you cannot reserve a seat, then you are more likely to get an unreserved seat late afternoon / evening and on the slower trains.
Since 2024 During the above holidays Nozomi services on the Tokaido Shinkansen (Tokyo~Nagoya~Kyoto~Osaka) and Sanyo Shinkansen (Osaka~Okayama~Hiroshima~Fukuoka) are all reserved seat trains.
Many JR East Shinkansen and Limited Express trains are reserved seat only at all times
Those stand alone public holidays that fall on a Monday so making a three day weekend, it is advisable if you are travelling longer distances to reserve seats particularly if you are travelling out of a big city on Saturday morning and returning Monday afternoon / evening.
For the three big holidays, we advise booking in advance (you can reserve seats up to 1 month (from 10am JST) prior to travel, including on line. For other, particularly 3 day weekends, it is preferable to book at least a few days in advance to ensure you can get a seat. If you do not book then there is a risk that cannot travel on your desired train.
It should be noted that nowadays there are many trains where you need to have a reserved seat at all times, and in the case of the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen, during the big three holidays all Nozomi and Mizuho trains (the fastest services) become all reserved trains.
Yes, the railway companies often run extra trains during busy holidays. These will be scheduled and seats can be booked in the normal way. Please note however that as train time tables are published monthly, extra trains may not appear on apps like Google Maps, Japan Transit, Japan Travel etc, if you are looking months ahead.
With the exception of the New Year Holiday, in most cases inbound tourists will probably not realise it is a holiday as almost everything will remain open, particularly in the big cities. See ” The Three big Japan Holidays you should be aware of…”above for more information.
Festivals and events do take place marking most of these holidays. Most festivals and events however are local in nature and it is best to get information on these from local tourist websites (see Japan Travel resources Page), local tourist information offices and local guides as most are not advertised nationally.
They will normally operate a Sunday / holiday schedule, but most foreign tourists will probably not notice a difference as day time frequencies are usually about the same as a weekday. It should be noted though that on some lines, particularly those running longer distances the times could be different from a weekday.
Yes, hotel rates are generally higher and rail companies will normally not have any discounted fares during holidays (so you may notice some fares are a few hundred yen higher than at other times), particularly the three big holidays mentioned above and on long weekends.
No, Roads get congested potentially adding hours to your journey time and airlines like the rail companies, despite putting on extra services, seats get sold out, particularly on the big holidays but also on the three day weekends.
Yes, most of the big cities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka & Fukuoka) see an exodus as people return to their home towns or take other vacations, so these cities are often much quieter. It may be better if you are Japan during these holiday periods to stick to the big cities.
Silver Week does not occur every year. In September there are two holidays, one that falls on the 3rd Monday and one that falls on the 23rd of the month. In some years these two holidays will fall very close to each other thus making it easier for people to add personal vacation days and take a longer holiday.
The sakura period is not a big travel time for a couple of reasons 1) there is sakura everywhere so there is no need to travel and many people celebrate the sakura locally with friends & family 2) it is difficult to predict when and how long the sakura will last.
There is a bit more travel during the Autumn Foliage period but again it is not such a big travel time.
Of course for both the Sakura and Autumn Foliage there are local exceptions and some places and public transport to those places will get busy, but this is more local rather than long distance.