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Events in Japan in February 2027

Dates verified: September 27, 2026

The most memorable festivals, fireworks nights, flower seasons, snow festivals and light-ups in February 2027, each date checked against its organiser. Filter by kind or city, and open an event for the details.

  • SnowSapporo Snow Festival · 4–11 Febさっぽろ雪まつりSapporo · Hokkaido · FreeJapan's greatest winter festival, eight February days when monumental snow sculptures fill the length of Odori Park in the heart of Sapporo.
    A hooded sculptor working with a chisel and mallet at the base of a large snow sculpture still being carved in Odori Park at night, snow-laden trees and a streetlamp behind
    Lt. Cmdr. Seth Koenig, U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · cropped
  • IlluminationNagasaki Lantern Festival · 5–21 Feb長崎ランタンフェスティバルNagasaki · FreeNagasaki's Chinese New Year, seventeen February days when thousands of lanterns light the city centre and dragon dances and imperial parades fill the streets.
    A large illuminated golden dragon lantern coiling beneath the glass roof of the Hamanmachi shopping arcade in Nagasaki, with red paper lanterns strung the length of the arcade below it
    Masoud Akbari via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • SnowAsahikawa Winter Festival · 6–11 Feb旭川冬まつりAsahikawa · Hokkaido · FreeHokkaido's second winter festival, six February days built around one giant snow sculpture on the Ishikari riverbank, with ice carving in the city centre.
    A vast snow sculpture reproducing a walled fortress at the Asahikawa Winter Festival, a stage set into its base with performers on it and a large crowd standing on the snow in front
    京浜にけ (Japanese Wikipedia) via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • SnowOtaru Snow Light Path · 6–13 Feb小樽雪あかりの路Otaru · Hokkaido · FreeOtaru's canal and old railway line lit each February evening with thousands of candles in snow and afloat on the water, a gentle counterpoint to Sapporo.
    Snow lanterns glowing along the towpath of the Otaru Canal at night, candles afloat on the still water and snow-laden stone warehouses hung with icicles reflected on the far bank, with onlookers standing along the path
    t-konno via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • FlowersExpected · dates to be confirmedMito Plum Blossom Festival · Mid February 2027 – Late March 2027水戸の梅まつりMito · Ibaraki · From ¥320Japan's best-known plum blossom festival, six late-winter weeks when three thousand plum trees bloom in Kairakuen, one of the three great gardens of Japan.
    A branch of white plum blossom with crimson calyces and yellow stamens in close-up at Kairakuen, the orchard of bare dark trunks and pink and white blossom soft behind it
    Etwas Neues via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
  • SnowYokote Kamakura Snow Festival · 12–13 Feb横手の雪まつり（かまくら）Yokote · Akita · FreeAkita's centuries-old festival of snow huts, two February nights when children welcome visitors into candle-lit kamakura with sweet sake and rice cakes.
    Two glowing snow-dome kamakura at night in Yokote Park, children sitting inside each around a charcoal brazier with a small altar at the back, a line of candle-lit miniature kamakura running between them and the floodlit Yokote Castle behind
    Rarisan via Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0 · cropped
  • FestivalNamahage Sedo Festival · 12–14 Febなまはげ柴灯まつりOga · Akita · From ¥2,000Three February nights on the Oga Peninsula when straw-clad namahage demons descend a torchlit hillside to Shinzan Shrine, Akita's most atmospheric folk rite.
    Five namahage in carved demon masks and straw capes drumming taiko under a shrine eave as heavy snow falls through the light, snow-covered spectators in the foreground
    掬茶 via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • SnowExpected · dates to be confirmedShowa-Shinzan International Yukigassen · Late February 2027昭和新山国際雪合戦Sobetsu · Hokkaido · FreeThe world championship of yukigassen, Japan's competitive snowball fight: 150 teams, seven a side, on the snow at the foot of a Hokkaido volcano.
    Players in numbered bibs advancing between walls of packed snow on a yukigassen court cut into a ski slope, one winding up to throw, crates of ready-made snowballs at the near end and spectators watching from the piste above
    Inverty via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
  • FestivalKatsuyama Sagicho Festival · 27–28 Feb勝山左義長まつりKatsuyama · Fukui · FreeFukui’s oddest late-winter festival: red-robed drummers clowning on twelve street towers, then a line of bonfires lit along the snowy riverbank.
    A row of tall bonfires blazing on an open riverbank at night at the Katsuyama Sagicho Festival, sparks rising into the dark and small figures silhouetted between the fires
    藤谷良秀 via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • SnowExpected · dates to be confirmedShirakawa-go Winter Light-up · Mid January 2027 – Early February 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
  • IlluminationKobe Luminarie · 29 Jan – 7 Feb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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