What Time Is It in Japan Right Now?

Nine hours ahead of UTC, always. Japan keeps Japan Standard Time at UTC+9 every day of the year, with no summer time and no seasonal switch. Add nine hours to UTC and that is local time from Hokkaido to Okinawa; the converter above does the same sum against any city you name.

• Offset: UTC+9, unchanging

• Zone name: Japan Standard Time (JST)

• Seasonal change: None since the occupation years

• Zones nationwide: One

Japan Time Zone Quick Reference

One line, and a town standing on it. Japan's clock is defined the older way round: the national standard is legally the mean solar time of the 135th meridian east, and the nine-hour offset follows from that rather than the reverse. The line runs through Akashi, in Hyōgo Prefecture, which took the name Toki no machi - the town of time - and built its municipal planetarium directly on the meridian. The arrangement took effect in 1888 and has not been altered since. One consequence matters: because the whole archipelago answers to a single line, the far south-west and far eastern islands sit well off it, their clocks running further from local solar noon than the mainland's.

The Decades When Japan Ran Two Time Zones

A single zone is a decision, not a default. Japan is described everywhere as a one-zone country, and today it is - but from the mid-1890s it operated two standards: the central one on the 135th meridian and a western one an hour lower, applied to part of Okinawa and to territories it then administered. The western standard was abolished in the late 1930s, and every part of Japan has read the same figure since - uniformity by deliberate consolidation rather than by accident of size, which is why no prefecture has any standing to keep a reading of its own.

Why There Has Been No Daylight Saving Time Since the Occupation

Four summers, and never again. Japan observed daylight saving time for four consecutive years during the Allied occupation after the war, from the first Sunday in May to the second Saturday in September, with transitions at two in the morning. It was widely disliked and ended with the occupation; proposals to reintroduce it have surfaced periodically without result. Nothing in the present arrangement produces a switch, so every figure below is exact for the season named and moves only when the other side moves.

Which rows hold and which move. Seoul matches in both columns because Korea holds a fixed UTC+9 exactly as Japan does, and so do North Korea, Palau and Timor-Leste. Beijing and Delhi never vary either, both on fixed offsets - Delhi's being a half-hour figure. Adelaide and Sydney move on the southern calendar, so their leads are widest during the northern winter, which is their summer. London and Los Angeles move on the northern calendar, and both narrow by an hour each northern summer.

Level in the region, split at both ends of the day. Korea reads identically and China is an hour behind, so Japan's nearest trade needs no arithmetic in any month. Europe is awkward: London is eight or nine hours behind depending on its own season, putting a British working morning in the Japanese evening and leaving only the very start of the European day overlapping. The American west coast lies across the date line, sixteen or seventeen hours behind, so a Japanese morning is the previous American afternoon - worth stating explicitly in any invitation, since the day of the week differs. Rail and airline schedules use one clock nationwide. Always confirm schedules directly with the operator.

Does Japan change its clocks?
No. The offset has held at UTC+9 since the occupation years, so a reading here is the same against UTC in January as in July.

Is all of Japan in one time zone?
Yes, from Hokkaido to Okinawa and every outlying island, with no prefectural exception.

Has Japan ever had more than one time zone?
Yes, from the mid-1890s until the late 1930s, when a second standard an hour lower applied to part of Okinawa and to territories then administered by Japan.

Which countries share Japan's offset?
South Korea, North Korea, Palau and Timor-Leste, all on a fixed UTC+9 with no seasonal change, so those matches never move.

Is Tokyo time the same as Osaka and Okinawa?
Yes, exactly, even though Okinawa lies far to the south-west of the meridian the standard is built on.

Do timetables here use the 24-hour clock?
Yes, throughout. Rail, air and official schedules use 24-hour notation, so an evening departure reads 18:00 rather than 6:00 pm.

Related Guides

• Time in South Korea

• Time in China

• Time in Taiwan

• Time in Australia