Current time in Tokyo

Japan Standard Time, set by a meridian west of Kobe

Tokyo and the whole of Japan use Japan Standard Time (JST), nine hours ahead of UTC, all year. The zone is defined by the 135° east meridian, which passes through the city of Akashi, west of Kobe, and not through Tokyo. The national time standard itself is generated by atomic clocks at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Koganei, in western Tokyo.

Four summers of daylight saving, then none

Japan does not change its clocks. Daylight saving time was introduced under the Allied occupation and used from 1948 to 1951, then dropped. The idea has come back several times, most recently before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as a way to avoid the midday heat, but it has never been adopted. One consequence is very early summer light: around the June solstice the sun rises in Tokyo at about 04:25.

A fixed clock in a moving world

Because Tokyo never shifts, its distance from cities that do shift changes twice a year. London is nine hours behind in winter and eight in summer; New York is fourteen hours behind in winter and thirteen in summer. Seoul shares Tokyo’s time exactly. For calls with Europe, the end of the Tokyo working day is the usual window: 17:00 in Tokyo is 09:00 in Paris in winter and 10:00 in summer.

Tokyo: time zone at a glance

Time zone

Asia/Tokyo

UTC offset

UTC+9, all year

Clock changes

None scheduled

Dates reflect the rules in force when this page was last updated. Governments can change them at short notice.

Plan a meeting in Tokyo

Use the actual meeting date. Seasonal clock changes can alter the time difference.

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