All of Japan uses Japan Standard Time (JST), nine hours ahead of UTC, and the clocks never change. Japan is one of the first major economies to start each day: when it is 9 a.m. on Monday in Tokyo, it is still Sunday evening across the Americas.
Where these times apply
All of Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa and the Ogasawara Islands, shares the same time.
Japan and daylight saving time
Japan used summer time only between 1948 and 1951, during the post-war occupation, and abandoned it afterwards. Proposals to reintroduce it — most recently for the Tokyo Olympics — have not gone ahead, so JST stays at UTC+9 all year.
Early sunrises in the east, late sunsets in the west
A single time zone across about 3,000 km means summer sunrise in eastern Hokkaido arrives before 4 a.m., while sunset in Okinawa’s southern Yaeyama Islands comes after 7:30 p.m. The city clocks below show the local time in Japan’s largest cities.
Business hours in Japan
Office hours are typically 9:00 to 17:30 or 18:00, Monday to Friday, and bank branches generally close their counters at 15:00. The Tokyo Stock Exchange trades from 9:00 to 11:30 and from 12:30 to 15:30 JST.
Clock changes in 2026 and 2027
No clock changes in 2026 or 2027: Japan Standard Time.