Check the current local time in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo uses the Asia/Tokyo time zone, with JST (UTC +9:00) during standard time.
JST
UTC +9:00
Used outside daylight saving time
Not Observed
Year-round standard time
No DST change
Standard time year-round
No seasonal offset changes
Tokyo runs on JST (UTC+9) year-round with no DST. Same offset as Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka. Also same offset as Seoul (KST). Business hours 9 AM - 6 PM formally but presence culture stretches this to 7-8 PM at large employers. TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange) trading runs 9 AM - 3 PM JST with a 1-h lunch break. Tokyo is 14 h ahead of New York (winter) / 13 h (summer).
East Asia — China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia — sits mostly at UTC+8 (China's single-timezone policy across the whole country) or UTC+9 (Japan, Korea). None observe DST anymore (Japan ended its post-WW2 experiment in the 1950s), so offsets are fixed. The region's single-large-zone footprint makes cross-Asia coordination unusually easy compared to Europe or North America.
Tokyo operates on JST — Japan Standard Time (UTC +9:00) year-round. Japan is one of the few major economic powers that does not observe daylight saving time, meaning Tokyo's offset from UTC is always a constant +9 hours, every day of the year. This predictability makes Tokyo straightforward for international scheduling: there are no seasonal adjustments, no "spring forward" reminders, and no temporary gaps opening up with countries that do observe DST.
As Asia's largest financial centre and the world's third-largest by market capitalisation, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) trades from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM JST with a one-hour lunch break (11:30 AM to 12:30 PM). When TSE opens, it's midnight in London and 7:00 PM the previous evening in New York — meaning Tokyo's trading session occurs entirely outside Western business hours. This makes the Singapore–Tokyo–Sydney corridor the primary Asia-Pacific market window.
Time differences from Tokyo vary significantly by season in countries that observe DST. Tokyo is 9 hours ahead of UTC, so: London (GMT) is 9 hours behind Tokyo in winter and 8 hours behind during BST. New York (EST) is 14 hours behind Tokyo in winter. Los Angeles (PST) is 17 hours behind — meaning 9:00 AM Monday in Tokyo is 4:00 PM Sunday in Los Angeles. Singapore and Hong Kong (UTC +8:00) are just one hour behind Tokyo, making them Tokyo's closest major business partners in terms of scheduling.
Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the world's most populous metropolitan area, with approximately 37 million people in the greater metropolitan region. The city's business culture places high value on punctuality — meetings starting exactly on time is not just a professional norm but a deeply embedded social expectation. When scheduling calls with Tokyo, building in a buffer for connection setup is advisable, and confirming time zone and DST status explicitly in calendar invites is strongly recommended.
Japan briefly experimented with daylight saving time during the US occupation period (1948–1951) but abolished it after public opposition. Today, Japan remains firmly committed to single-timezone, no-DST operation across its entire territory.
Tokyo business hours run 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM JST, Monday to Friday. Many firms, especially in finance and manufacturing, begin at 8:00 or 8:30 AM.
Local Exchange
Asia's largest exchange with a one-hour lunch break.
These cities share the same time zone as Tokyo — when it's 2:06:19 PM here, it's the same local time there.
Major cities in Japan — some may be in a different time zone than Tokyo if the country spans multiple zones.
Find the perfect overlap time between your timezone and Tokyo. Our calculator shows when business hours align.
Calculate Best Calling TimeEverything you need to know about Tokyo time
