What time is it in Japan?
GMT+9 · Asia/Tokyo
Back to JapanNow in Tokyo
GMT+9 UTC+09:00
UTC+09:00
all yearJapan Standard Time
Japan keeps a single time zone, Japan Standard Time, nine hours ahead of UTC, and its clocks do not change in summer. The standard meridian is 135 degrees east, which passes through Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture, a city that has been called the Town of Time ever since. One clock covers everything from Yonaguni in the far west to Minamitorishima in the east, so eastern Hokkaido runs more than 30 minutes behind the sun while the western Ryukyu Islands run more than 30 minutes ahead of it.
Today
Daylight in Tokyo today
DayLive
12:00
- Sunrise
- 05:35First light 05:10
- Sunset
- 17:26Last light 17:51
- Day length
- 11 h 51 min−2 min on yesterday
- Solar noon
- 11:31Sun at 52°, its highest
Plan a call
Find an hour that works in Japan and elsewhere
The two rows are the same day, hour for hour. Pick a city, then an hour, and the line between the rows marks the office hours both sides share.
Time difference
How far Japan is from other places
Neighbours
- ChinaBeijing−1 h
- South KoreaSeoulSame time
- PhilippinesManila−1 h
- RussiaMoscow−6 h
- TaiwanTaipei−1 h
- United StatesWashington, D.C.−13 h
Around the world
- London−8 h
- Los Angeles−16 h
- São Paulo−12 h
- Dubai−5 h
- Delhi−3:30 h
- Sydney+1 h
Clock changes
Japan does not change its clocks
Japan has had summer time only once, under the Allied occupation, which imposed it from 1948 to 1951. Clocks went forward at 24:00 on the first Saturday in May (in 1949, the first Saturday in April) and back at 24:00 on the second Saturday in September. In 1952, three weeks before the occupation ended, the Japanese government abolished it, and the occupation authorities let the decision stand. Campaigns to bring it back began in the late 1990s, with most support in Hokkaido, where summer daylight starts around 03:30. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy of the Cabinet Office looked at reinstating it in 2007 as a measure against global warming and got nowhere. A simulation that year found it would raise energy use in Osaka homes by 0.13%, because extra cooling cost more than the lighting it saved.
Daylight
Sunrise and sunset through the year in Tokyo
- Sunrise
- 05:35
- Sunset
- 17:26
- Daylight
- 11 h 51 min
- Change
- −2 min
Longest day of 2026: 19 June, 14 h 35 min.
Computed for 35.69, 139.69 at sea level with the NOAA solar equations, to the nearest minute, taking no account of hills.
Writing the time
- Clock
- 24-hour
- Short date
- 2026/03/05
- Long date
- 2026年3月5日
- Week starts
- Sunday
- Zone names
- GMT+9
- Time zone database
- Tokyo
History
How the clocks in Japan got here
- 1890
- To 1947.UTC+09:00 all year, no summer time.
- 1948
- To 1951.UTC+09:00 in winter, UTC+10:00 in summer time.
- 1952
- To today.UTC+09:00 all year, no summer time.
From the IANA time zone database, Asia/Tokyo, as the build machine carries it.
Common questions
Questions about the time in Japan
What time zone is Japan in?
Japan Standard Time, abbreviated JST and nine hours ahead of UTC. It is the only zone in the country, and the time zone database lists it as Asia/Tokyo. The same time applies on Okinawa, in Hokkaido and on the remote islands, from Yonaguni at 122°56′E to Minamitorishima at 153°59′E. Korea Standard Time, Pyongyang Time, Palau Time, East Timor and eastern Indonesia keep the same offset.
Does Japan use daylight saving time?
No. The clocks stay on Japan Standard Time all year and have done so since 1952. Summer time was tried for four years during the occupation and then dropped by the Japanese government. Revivals have been proposed several times since the late 1990s, among them by a Cabinet Office council in 2007, and none has become law. Some local governments have instead trialled working hours an hour earlier in summer, leaving the clocks alone.
Why is Japanese time set at 135 degrees east?
Before the Meiji era every region kept local solar time, and railways made that unworkable: Tokyo and Osaka lie about five degrees of longitude apart, a gap of around 20 minutes. Ordinance 51 of 13 July 1886 fixed the meridian at 135 degrees east from 1 January 1888, which put the country nine hours ahead of Greenwich. Akashi sits exactly on that line, and its municipal planetarium is the usual symbol of Japan Standard Time.
Did Japan ever have two time zones?
Yes, from January 1896 to September 1937. After Taiwan was annexed, Ordinance 167 of 1895 renamed the existing time Central Standard Time and created Western Standard Time, eight hours ahead of Greenwich, along 120 degrees east. It covered Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa. Ordinance 529 abolished it in 1937, and from October that year Central Standard Time applied there as well.
How early does the sun rise in Hokkaido in summer?
Daylight can start as early as 03:30 in parts of Hokkaido around the summer solstice. The island lies far north and near the eastern edge of the zone, so much of it is closer in solar terms to ten hours ahead of UTC than to nine. At the other end of the day, sunsets come soon after 19:00 in much of eastern Japan; the latest sunset of the year in Tokyo is 19:01, from 26 June to 1 July.
Has Japan considered moving its clocks two hours ahead?
The idea was put forward on 22 May 2013, when the Governor of Tokyo proposed at an industry competitiveness conference that Japan Standard Time move to eleven hours ahead of UTC, so that the Tokyo market would open before any other in the world. The government considered the idea and took no action, and the country has stayed at nine hours ahead.