Japan and US Time Difference: Best Times to Call Tokyo

Last updated November 6, 2026 · Written by Han with AI assistance, fact-checked against official sources.

Japan keeps one clock all year, so only the US clock changes in March and November move the gap.

Compare New York and Tokyo on a date of your choice in the Meeting Planner.

Tokyo against every US time zone

The table is calculated from the time zone database for 2026. January shows US standard time and July shows US daylight saving time. Phoenix and Honolulu never change, so their gap to Tokyo stays fixed.

When Tokyo starts Monday, every US city is still on Sunday. The last column counts the hours when both sides sit inside a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. day. Most of the mainland gets none.

When the gap changes

US daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Those two nights change the gap to Tokyo by one hour, and nothing changes in Japan. The next change is on Sunday, March 14, 2027, when US clocks spring forward.

A 9 a.m. Tokyo stand-up is 7 p.m. the evening before in New York in winter and 8 p.m. in summer. Name the city that owns the meeting time in the invite. The guide to recurring meetings and clock changes shows what calendar apps do on those weeks.

Japanese holidays in US time

A Japanese public holiday starts at midnight in Tokyo, which is 10 a.m. the day before in New York in winter and 11 a.m. in summer. If you send a question on a US Wednesday afternoon and Thursday is a holiday in Japan, most offices there will see it on Friday morning, Tokyo time. The table converts the next national holidays on the Cabinet Office list to New York time.

Golden Week is the one to plan around. In 2027 the Cabinet Office lists April 29 (a Thursday) and May 3 to 5 (Monday to Wednesday). With the weekend in between, an office on a Monday-to-Friday week is closed from Saturday, May 1 to Wednesday, May 5. In New York time that runs from 11 a.m. on Friday, April 30 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 5. The list covers national holidays only. Obon in mid-August and the days after January 1 are not on it, so if a deadline falls then, ask your contact whether their office is open.

Best times to call Japan from the US

New York and Tokyo never share an hour of the office day, so one side stays late or starts early. From the East Coast, 7 to 9 p.m. reaches Tokyo at 9 to 11 a.m. in winter and 8 to 10 a.m. in summer. From the West Coast, 4 to 6 p.m. reaches the same Tokyo hours, so a Los Angeles caller can use the end of the working day.

Honolulu has the easiest schedule. Hawaii is 19 hours behind Tokyo all year, so 2 to 5 p.m. in Honolulu is 9 a.m. to noon the next day in Tokyo, inside both working days.

Going the other way, a Tokyo evening reaches the US East Coast before work. 8 to 10 p.m. in Tokyo is 6 to 8 a.m. in New York in winter and 7 to 9 a.m. in summer.

From 10 a.m. in New York in winter, or 11 a.m. in summer, Tokyo is already on the next date, so a US Friday afternoon is a Saturday morning there.

One clock from Hokkaido to Okinawa

Japan uses one time zone for the whole country. According to NICT, Japan Standard Time is legally defined as the local time at the 135th meridian east, an arrangement that goes back to 1886. NICT generates the time with atomic clocks and sets it exactly 9 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

With one clock from north to south, sunrise varies a lot. Around the June solstice, the standard sunrise equation puts it at about 3:40 a.m. in Nemuro, at the eastern tip of Hokkaido, and about 5:40 a.m. in Naha, Okinawa, while offices in both open at the same clock time.

Japan's four summers of daylight saving time

Japan tried daylight saving time after the Second World War, during the Allied occupation. The time zone database shows clocks one hour ahead, at UTC+10, in four summers, from early May to September in 1948, 1950 and 1951, and from early April to September in 1949. Since 1952 Japan has stayed on UTC+9 all year.

Seoul uses the same meridian and always shows the same hour as Tokyo; the South Korea and US guide covers its history.

JST and the US codes

JST means UTC+9 in every month. On the US side, EST and PST are only correct in winter; from March to November it is EDT and PDT. In an invite between the two countries, write "Tokyo time" or "JST" next to the US city name, and put both dates: "Tuesday 7 p.m. New York / Wednesday 9 a.m. Tokyo".

Quick checks before you book

• Look at the holiday table before you set a deadline, especially for late April and early May.
• Check the weeks after the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. A call fixed in one country's time moves by an hour in the other.

Open the Meeting Planner to test a time, or see the city pages for Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu. The Asia and Pacific time zones guide covers Japan's neighbors, and China and US Time Difference works through the same problem for Beijing.