When to go to Japan: cherry blossoms, rainy season, typhoons and autumn leaves

Japan can be visited all year, and two periods stand out in its calendar: cherry blossom, from late March to mid-April between Tokyo and Kyoto, and red maples, from late November to early December in the same cities. The rainy season takes up June and the first half of July, and typhoons approach mostly in August and September. The dates in this guide are the 1991-2020 averages of the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency), which give a benchmark for choosing your dates; each year differs from them by a few days. The country is on UTC+9 all year, with no daylight saving time: 9 hours ahead of London in winter and 8 hours ahead in summer.

Temperatures, month by month

Average daily maximum temperatures, in °C, at JMA stations near the stops on our trips:

April and October bring afternoons of 17 to 24 °C almost everywhere. In August, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima average more than 32 °C. In January, Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima stay around 9 to 10 °C in the afternoon, while Takayama, in the Japanese Alps, drops to 3.2 °C.

Cherry blossom

The blossom moves from the south-west to the north-east. Each year the JMA observes sample trees in each city and records two dates: first bloom, then full bloom, about a week later.

On average, then, a trip from 28 March to 10 April finds the cherry trees in bloom in Tokyo and then in Kyoto; Kanazawa follows about a week later. The JMA does not observe cherry trees in Takayama; the town holds its spring festival, the Sanno Matsuri, on 14 and 15 April (see Hida, Takayama and Shirakawa-go).

The JMA publishes observations and averages; blossom forecasts come from private weather companies. Weathernews will publish its forecast in February 2027.

Golden Week and the 2027 public holidays

In 2027, Golden Week brings together Thursday 29 April (Showa Day) and then, after Friday 30 April, a working day, and the weekend of 1 and 2 May, Monday 3, Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 May (Constitution Day, Greenery Day and Children's Day). The other 2027 public holidays, published by the Cabinet Office, the Japanese Prime Minister's administration:

• 1 January, 11 January, 11 February, 23 February;
• 21 March, the spring equinox, and 22 March, a substitute holiday;
• 19 July, 11 August (Mountain Day), 20 and 23 September;
• 11 October, 3 November, 23 November.

On these days, Japanese residents travel too, especially from 29 April to 5 May. Our trains guide explains how to reserve shinkansen seats during peak periods.

The rainy season

The rainy season, tsuyu in Japanese, covers the start of summer in almost the whole country. The JMA gives its start and end dates as "around" the day shown:

Hokkaido, in the north, has no rainy season declared by the JMA.

Summer and typhoons

July and August are hot: an average maximum of 32 °C in Kyoto in July and 33.7 °C in August. Typhoons, the tropical cyclones of the Pacific, approach Japan 11.7 times a year on average, meaning their centre passes within 300 km of a weather station, and 3 make landfall:

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Autumn and the maples

Autumn is mild: 22 °C in October in Tokyo, 17 °C in November in Kyoto. The maples turn red first in the mountains, then in the cities. Average dates when the JMA's sample maples turn red:

In Takayama, the Hachiman Matsuri, the autumn festival, takes place on 9 and 10 October. A trip from mid-November to the first week of December generally catches the maples of Kanazawa, Tokyo and Kyoto; our 10-day Japanese Alps and Kanazawa trip suits this period.

Winter

From December to February, average maximum temperatures range from 9 to 12 °C in Tokyo and Kyoto, and from 3 to 8 °C in January in Takayama and at the foot of Hakone. It is the season for the open-air hot-spring baths of mountain ryokan (see our onsen guide). Several places on our trips close this winter:

• Hakone Ropeway: the Owakudani-Sounzan section is closed from 7 to 24 December 2026, the Togendai-Owakudani section from 12 January to 26 February 2027;
• Benesse House, on Naoshima, closed from 12 to 18 January 2027, and its Beach building from 4 January to 4 March 2027;
• Chichu Art Museum, on Naoshima, closed from 12 January to 19 March 2027;
• the spa at The Okura Tokyo, closed from 12 to 15 January 2027.

In 2027, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa closes from 6 May 2027 to March 2028.