Hello everyone! In Germany last week the clocks were changed back to daylight-saving time, but how is it actually in Japan? When do they change the time there? And in which time zone is Japan?
Hello! While we are on the subject: How big is the difference to the time in Germany? And what I would also be interested in is the length of the day, and how I can best overcome the jet lag!
Hi, it’s me, JPNavi! That’s a lot of questions. In this article I will summarize everything concerning the time and daytime in Japan! Have fun reading.
Time zone.
In Japan, the Japan Standard Time (JST) applies; and that applies to Japan as a whole. Japan is located east of Europe and is therefore ahead of us in time. In terms of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the official world time, Japan is in the GMT+9 time zone.
Time shift.
All well and good, but “GMT+9” is not the answer you would expect if you wanted to know what time it is. The easiest way is to relate to Germany. But here you have to start differentiating between summer and winter time.
We change the clock (still) twice a year, in Japan there is no summertime, so the whole year it is the same time. This also means that the time difference between Japan and Germany is different in summer than in winter. In summer Japan is 7 hours ahead of us, in winter it is 8 hours.
History of the time shift.
Currently there is no daylight-saving time in Japan. But was there ever a time change in Japan?
Actually, the last time the clock was changed was in 1951. To be precise, the clocks were set back one hour (from 2:00 am to 1:00 am) on September 8, 1951. So, this is where the last daylight-saving time in Japan ended. The summertime ending here began on May 6, 1951, when the clocks were advanced from 2:00 am to 3:00 am. You can find more details for example on this page.
Does this mean that there was a continuous time change in Japan until 1951? No, there was no change for a long period of time, it started with the introduction of daylight-saving time on May 2, 1948, so it was only four years with time change, then it was abolished.
Daylight and day length.
The time change is also called “daylight-saving-time” – and not for no reason. If there is no daylight-saving-time in Japan, what about daylight in Japan? Anyone who has ever been to Japan knows that it gets dark relatively quickly in the evening – regardless of the season.
But the sun rises very early in the morning. June 21 is the longest day of the year this year, with a day length of a good 14.5 hours in Tokyo. But the sun rises at 4:25 a.m. and sets at 7:00 pm – so no grilling until 9 pm in the sunshine, because the time of twilight is also relatively short. Just for comparison: in Munich the sun rises at 5:13 am and sets again at 9:17 pm – so we also have 1.5 hours more sun than in Tokyo.
But in winter it is the other way round. The shortest day this year is on December 21st with a day length of almost 9.75 hours in Tokyo. Sunrise is at three-quarters seven and the sunset at 4:31 pm. The sunset in Munich is only 9 minutes earlier, but the sun doesn’t rise until 8:01am – so we have only eight and a half hours of day length. If you are interested in day lengths or sunrises and sunsets, I recommend this page.
Tips for the jet lag.
Time shifting can be exhausting! So that you are not tormented by jet lag for the first few days after your flight, here are a few tips.
Even if it is more difficult than it sounds: the most important thing is to live directly according to the new time zone when you arrive there. So the best thing to do is to set your watch to the target time as soon as you board the plane and try to change your sleeping rhythm while you are still in the plane. If you can’t sleep in the plane, you will now think: “thank you for the pointless tip”. But for those of you who can’t sleep on the plane, it’s even more important to bite through the first day!
Those who have got through the first day in the time on site, have survived the worst. This can be very exhausting (also from our own experience), but those who lie down “for a short rest” at noon will struggle with the consequences the following days. The best thing to do is to keep busy for the first day, then the day will be over twice as fast and you will notice the tiredness only half as bad. And how to keep yourself busy is described in the articles on Traveling Japan. The possibilities are endless – just go for a walk, visit the first sights, explore department stores and supermarkets, go out for a meal, and so on..
Summary.
Japan does not change the clocks, so the same time applies all year round. Compared to Germany, in Japan it is 8 hours later in winter, in summer it is only 7 hours.
The sun generally rises very early in Japan and then sets again quickly, so if you want to experience as much sunshine as possible, you have to get up early!