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Events in Japan: Calendar 2026–2027

Dates verified: September 27, 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
  • FestivalComing soonNagasaki Kunchi · 7–9 Oct長崎くんちNagasaki · FreeNagasaki's three-day autumn festival for Suwa Shrine, a rotating showcase of dragon dances, spinning ship floats and Dutch and Chinese-flavoured performances.
    A long red and gold Chinese dragon held aloft on poles by handlers in black, coiling through a Nagasaki street during the jaodori, with a dancer in front raising the gold pearl it chases
    Marine-Blue via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • FestivalComing soonTakayama Autumn Festival (Hachiman Matsuri) · 9–10 Oct秋の高山祭（八幡祭）Takayama · Gifu · FreeThe autumn half of the Takayama Festival, two October days of gilded yatai floats, karakuri puppets and a lantern-lit evening procession through the old town.
    A long green and orange shishi lion carried through a narrow Takayama old-town street by a troupe in matching green, its red lacquered head with gold teeth held at the front and a child watching from a doorway
    Sjaak Kempe via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
  • FestivalComing soonKawagoe Festival · 17–18 Oct川越まつりKawagoe · Saitama · FreeLittle Edo's October float festival, two days and nights when tall dashi floats parade Kawagoe's warehouse streets and duel in the musical hikkawase.
    A masked ohayashi dancer in a green floral yukata holding a purple parasol, performing beside a flute player and drummers in navy happi coats with a large taiko and two rope-laced shime-daiko on the stage at the Kawagoe Festival Hall
    aotaro via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationComing soonAshikaga 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
  • IlluminationComing soonNabana 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
  • FestivalComing soonJidai Matsuri · 22 Oct時代祭Kyoto · FreeKyoto's Festival of the Ages, a 22 October procession of two thousand people in a thousand years of historical costume from the Imperial Palace to Heian Shrine.
    A performer as Sei Shonagon in red Heian court robes and white court makeup, holding a fan and a bound book on a carried platform in the Jidai Matsuri procession in Kyoto, her name banner behind her and attendants in white at the shafts
    Corpse Reviver via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • IlluminationTokyo 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
  • FestivalFujiwara 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
  • IlluminationMidosuji 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
  • IlluminationExpected · dates to be confirmedRoppongi and Midtown Illuminations · Early November 2026 – Late December 2026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
  • FireworksTsuchiura 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
  • IlluminationMarunouchi 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
  • IlluminationSapporo 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

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