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Events in Japan: Calendar 2026–2027

Dates verified: October 28, 2026

The most memorable festivals, fireworks nights, flower seasons, snow festivals and light-ups from today onward, in date order, each checked against its organiser. Filter by kind or city, or pick a week or month above.

  • FlowersOn nowHitachi Seaside Park Kochia Carnival · 18 Sept – 3 NovコキアカーニバルHitachinaka · Ibaraki · From ¥800The autumn counterpart to the blue nemophila hill, when tens of thousands of round kochia bushes turn Miharashi Hill a deep crimson through October.
    Miharashi Hill at Hitachi Seaside Park covered in deep crimson kochia bushes to the skyline, paved paths winding through them and crowds of visitors walking the slope under a clear blue sky
    Andre Benz via Unsplash · Unsplash License · cropped
  • IlluminationOn nowAshikaga Flower Park Flower Fantasy · 17 Oct 2026 – 14 Feb 2027あしかがフラワーパーク 光の花の庭Ashikaga · Tochigi · From ¥1,500The wisteria garden's winter illumination, four months of lights in three themed phases at Ashikaga Flower Park, one of Japan's three great illuminations.
    A pond at Ashikaga Flower Park filled with LED tableaux at night — a lit sailing ship, a glowing blue globe, whales, dolphins, penguins and giraffes — each one mirrored in the still black water
    Miyuki Meinaka via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationOn nowNabana no Sato Illumination · 17 Oct 2026 – 31 May 2027なばなの里 イルミネーションKuwana · Mie · From ¥2,500Japan's largest garden illumination, from mid-October to the end of May in a flower park near Nagoya, with a light tunnel and a field of millions of LEDs.
    A curving light tunnel glowing pink beside a bed of red LED tulips at Nabana no Sato at night, real trees lit warm above it and a blue LED field in the distance
    carloshonda via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationOn nowTokyo Mega Illumination · 31 Oct 2026 – 10 Jan 2027東京メガイルミTokyo · From ¥800Tokyo's largest ticketed illumination, a winter light park laid out across Oi Racecourse in Shinagawa on the nights when there is no racing.
    A crowd in silhouette walking beneath a vast draped canopy of warm white fairy lights at Tokyo Mega Illumination, with red and blue lit sections deeper under the grandstand at Oi Racecourse
    Syced via Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0 · cropped
  • FestivalComing soonFujiwara Autumn Festival · 1–3 Nov秋の藤原まつりHiraizumi · Iwate · FreeThree early-November days of Noh, ancient Ennen dances and a children's procession at Hiraizumi's World Heritage temples, timed to peak maple colour.
    The covering hall that shelters the Konjikido at Chuson-ji in Hiraizumi, gold glinting through its open doorway, with a maple in full red beside it and cedars on the hill behind
    skyseeker via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationComing soonMidosuji Illumination and Osaka Hikari no Renaissance · 3 Nov – 31 Dec御堂筋イルミネーションOsaka · FreeOsaka's winter of light, four kilometres of lit trees along Midosuji Avenue through November and December, joined mid-month by the Nakanoshima Renaissance.
    Ginkgo trees wrapped in blue-white lights receding down both sides of Midosuji Avenue in Osaka at night, with red and white car light trails streaking across the roadway in a long exposure
    Mc681 via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationComing soonRoppongi and Midtown Illuminations · 5 Nov – 25 Decけやき坂イルミネーション／MIDTOWN CHRISTMASTokyo · FreeTwo Christmas displays ten minutes apart in Roppongi: the Keyakizaka slope in blue and white under Tokyo Tower, and Tokyo Midtown’s lit garden.
    Roppongi Keyakizaka-dori lined with trees in blue and white lights at night, Tokyo Tower lit orange at the end of the street between the towers
    Junhyeong Song via Unsplash · Unsplash License · cropped
  • FireworksComing soonTsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition · 7 Nov土浦全国花火競技大会Tsuchiura · Ibaraki · FreeJapan's great autumn fireworks competition, a cold November night on the Sakura River in Ibaraki where the country's top makers compete an hour from Tokyo.
    A wall of white starmine bursts with blue and red peony shells over the Sakura River at the Tsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition, a large orange chrysanthemum shell high above them
    inoc via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationComing soonMarunouchi Illumination · 12 Nov 2026 – 14 Feb 2027丸の内イルミネーションTokyo · FreeTokyo's most elegant street illumination, three months of champagne-gold lights in the trees of Marunouchi Naka-dori beside Tokyo Station.
    Warm champagne-gold fairy lights wound along the branches of a zelkova on Marunouchi Naka-dori at night, with autumn leaves still on the tree and the windows of an office building behind
    Takashi Hososhima via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationComing soonSapporo White Illumination · 20 Nov 2026 – 14 Mar 2027さっぽろホワイトイルミネーションSapporo · Hokkaido · FreeJapan's oldest city illumination, lighting Odori Park and Sapporo's main streets from late November into the snow of February, with a German Christmas market.
    A field of blue lights and white and pink snowflake motifs in Odori Park at night during the Sapporo White Illumination, with the lit Sapporo TV Tower behind and the wet pavement reflecting the blue
    Sorah Fukumori via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
  • FestivalChichibu Night Festival · 2–3 Dec秩父夜祭Chichibu · Saitama · FreeOne of Japan's three great float festivals, a December night when six lantern-hung floats are hauled up the Dangozaka slope beneath winter fireworks.
    A performer in white and crimson robes and a knotted headband calling out with both arms raised on a lantern-hung float at the Chichibu Night Festival, above rows of white paper lanterns and red lanterns in the dark
    Fg2 via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · cropped
  • FestivalTokyo Sengakuji Gishisai Festival · 12–14 Dec泉岳寺 赤穂義士祭Tokyo · FreeThree December days of memorial rites at the temple where the 47 ronin are buried, closing on 14 December with a costumed gishi procession into the grounds.
    The Oishi Kuranosuke figure leading the Genroku-dress gishi procession in through the gate of Sengakuji Temple in Tokyo, in the black-and-white sawtooth haori of the 47 ronin, with onlookers photographing from both sides
    江戸村のとくぞう via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • FestivalAko Gishisai Festival · 14 Dec赤穂義士祭Ako · Hyogo · FreeAko’s one-day tribute to the 47 ronin of Chushingura, with a costumed parade of the loyal retainers along the castle-town streets every 14 December.
    Two costumed performers on a festival float staging the seppuku of Lord Asano at the Ako Gishisai — one kneeling in white robes holding a short blade, a second standing behind with a raised sword — before a gold folding screen and artificial cherry blossom
    Corpse Reviver via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • FestivalKasuga Wakamiya Onmatsuri · 15–18 Dec春日若宮おん祭Nara · FreeNara's oldest festival, four December days at Kasuga Taisha whose 17 December procession of a thousand costumed figures leads to firelit sacred dances.
    Motonobu Gen Nakagawa, Mayor of Nara, in black Heian-period court robes and a tall lacquered cap, laughing behind a raised hand as the Kasuga Wakamiya Onmatsuri procession passes along Sanjo Street in Nara
    NNDDD via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • SnowExpected · dates to be confirmedZao Snow Monsters Light-up (Zao Juhyo Festival) · Late December 2026 – Late February 2027蔵王樹氷まつりYamagata · From ¥4,400Yamagata's frost-covered 'snow monsters' lit in colour at the top of the Zao Ropeway on selected winter nights, a spectacle unique to the Zao range.
    Fir trees buried under thick layers of wind-driven rime on the ridge above Zao Onsen, standing as hulking white figures that fade one behind another into freezing fog
    pen_ash via Unsplash · Unsplash License · cropped
  • FestivalExpectedToka Ebisu · 9–11 Jan 2027十日戎Osaka · FreeOsaka's three-day January festival of good fortune at Imamiya Ebisu Shrine, where visitors queue for lucky bamboo branches handed out by the fuku-musume.
    Shrine helpers in matching yellow happi holding decorated sprigs of lucky bamboo hung with gold coins, red sea bream and Ebisu charms, under red and white paper lanterns, as visitors reach up from below
    Mixtribe Photo via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
  • SnowShirakawa-go Winter Light-up · 11–31 Jan 2027白川郷ライトアップShirakawa · GifuFour winter evenings when Shirakawa-go's thatched farmhouses are lit under deep snow, the most sought-after and tightly ticketed sight of a Japanese winter.
    Three gassho-zukuri farmhouses at Shirakawa-go on a winter night, their steep thatched roofs heaped with snow and their paper windows glowing gold, deep untracked snow in front and snow-laden cedars on the hillside behind
    Yoshiyuki Ito via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • FestivalExpectedNozawa Fire Festival · 15 Jan 2027野沢温泉の道祖神祭りNozawa Onsen · Nagano · FreeA ten-metre beech shrine held for ninety minutes against torch-bearing villagers on 15 January, then burned with the year's first-son lanterns.
    The burning hatsu-doro at the Nozawa Fire Festival: a tall lantern of inked paper streamers under a domed bamboo frame, flames and sparks pouring up behind it, a red paper lantern reading Nozawagumi hanging alongside and a crowd silhouetted below
    Michael Mason via Unsplash · Unsplash License · cropped
  • IlluminationKobe Luminarie · 29 Jan – 7 Feb 2027神戸ルミナリエKobe · Hyogo · FreeKobe's memorial illumination for the 1995 earthquake, ten late-January nights of Italian light arches over the former Foreign Settlement and Meriken Park.
    A monumental illuminated gateway of hand-painted bulbs at Kobe Luminarie seen from below at night, its rosettes and finials picked out in blue, green, red and gold, with a lit dome visible through the arch
    Yoyogimura via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • SnowYunishigawa Onsen Kamakura Festival · 29 Jan – 28 Feb 2027湯西川温泉かまくら祭Nikko · Tochigi · FreeA hot-spring village in the mountains of Nikko where hundreds of candle-lit miniature snow huts line the riverbed on winter evenings from late January.
    A snowy path at night lined on both sides with small candle-lit snow huts glowing orange, blue light washing the snow between them and a few visitors walking up the path
    Miyuki Meinaka via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped

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