What To Do In Japan In 2025

⏱ 8 minutes

Tourism is thriving and back to its pre-Covid 🦠 numbers in the archipelago. It has only been 2 years and a half since borders reopened on October 2022, and Japan can already boast record breaking tourism figures. In 2024, international travelers were 36,87 million to visit Japan, a nearly 16 % increase since 2019, the year of the previous record.

2025 is also giving promising prospects for leisure travels, with favorable circumstances overall for international visitors, especially thanks to:

The exchange rate of the Yen, as the currency value remains low and allows for a bigger spending power in Japan;
The capacity increase for receiving international flights ✈️, especially at Tokyo-Haneda and Osaka-KIX airports ; and,
A stable global situation, safe at the moment, without notable crisis or recent natural disaster.

Several yearly highlights help maintain Japan’s attractiveness, such as:

Early spring’s sakura 🌸 cherry blossom season, especially during the average time period spanning March 20 to April 5;
The Golden Week, a week of national holidays, that will take place from Saturday, April 26 to Tuesday, May 6 in 2025 (for the longest duration);
The climbing of Mount Fuji 🗻, only from early July to early September, that more than 200,000 hikers endeavored in 2024. In summer 2025, the Yoshida Trail admission fee will amount to ¥4,000 (~US$26.36) per person ; and,
The end of autumn colored by the red momiji 🍁 foliage, from mid-November to early December in the most popular places.

Tsuyu ☔️, the rainy season, is usually marked by a slowing down of tourism, especially in June and in early July. In the same way, winter in Japan is the lowest touristic season, despite many things to do.

In 2025, there will be 19 bank holidays in Japan, that is to say 3 more than usual thanks to the compensatory holidays (when a bank holiday falls on a weekend, it is moved to the next working day). The year’s Chinese zodiac sign is the snake, already illustrating ema votive plates since the celebration of the New Year 2025.

It is also the 7th year of the Reiwa Era, counting since the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito in 2019.

One of the most important events to take place in Japan in 2025 is Expo 2025 Osaka. The world fair is scheduled from mid-April to mid-October on an artificial island called Yumeshima in Osaka Bay.

Incidentally, American newspaper The New York Times selected Osaka and Toyama as 2025 top destinations. While choosing the capital of the Kansai area may seem natural, Toyama comes as surprise. Sitting of the Sea of Japan’s coast, the city is the capital of the eponymous prefecture. Its was selected for its location close to Noto Peninsula, an area partly devastated by a large magnitude earthquake 1 year ago on January 1, 2024. Tourism is envisioned as a solution to help support the region’s recovery.

Kanpai’s has also curated a few interesting destinations and novelties in 2025. Prospective travelers to Japan can pick in the non-exhaustive list below to plan for their trips and itineraries.

New attractions

Japan is home to some of the biggest theme parks 🎡 in Asia, including very popular international licenses, where new extensions are frequently added:

Tokyo DisneySea has inaugurated its 8th land, Fantasy Springs, on June 6, 2024.
Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka opened the Donkey Kong Country within the Super Nintendo World on December 11, 2024.

Other Japanese theme parks are also worth mentioning:

Ghibli Park, the 1rst official park bringing to life Studio Ghibli’s universes. It came to completion with the opening of its last world on March 16, 2024 and is now offering a full experience of Hayao Miyazaki’s imagination.
Nintendo Museum, the 1rst official museum of the Japanese video game company, opened on October 2, 2024, in Uji a city in the south of Kyoto.
TeamLab Planets, the digital art museum located in Koto ward (Tokyo) has extended its exhibition space by 1,5 with about 10 new immersive experiences available since January 22, 2025.
Junglia (ジャングリア) is a new leisure park themed on tropical forest and dinosaurs, whose opening is scheduled on July 25, 2025 in the heart of Honto, Okinawa’s main island.

A for indoor entertainment, the Nintendo Switch 2 console should be released in 2025; details will be announced at the next Nintendo Live on April 2.

The latest urban complexes

Mostly located in the capital, the latest big architectural projects to discover are:

Ginza Sony Park, an urban park spreading on several levels and 100 % completed in January 2025. It is replacing the former 1966 Sony Building dismantled in 2017.
Takanawa Gateway City, encompassing several buildings and a walkway near the most recent Yamanote line’s station inaugurated in 2020, will open on March 27, 2025.
Harajuku Quest’s complex will be inaugurated in Spring 2025. It was designed by Japanese architect Shohei Shigematsu from OMA, an architectural practice in New-York, and it is located at the exit of Meiji-jingumae subway station.
Seibu Ikebukuro shopping mall is undergoing major renovation works that should be completed by summer 2025.
The redevelopment project in front of Tokyo’s Jiyugaoka station should be completed in 2025 and will include housing and a shopping arcade. Jiyugaoka’s neighborhood is famous for its coffee shops, its fashion stores and is European atmosphere.

In the north of Osaka, Umeda’s area also has its large scale redeveloping project with the Grand Green Osaka, constructed on the site of a former freight station extending on a more than 11 hectares superficies. The place has been gradually opening to the public since September 2024. A trendy food court, Osaka TimeOut Market, will be inaugurated on March 21, 2025.

Artist's view of the Ring, Symbol of Expo 2025 Osaka

Exhibitions and events throughout the year

Aside Expo 2025 Osaka, that will take place from April 13 to October 13, there are other temporary yet noticeable events to come as well as inaugurations of new museums:

Sanryo’s character Hello Kitty celebrates her 50th anniversary with a traveling exhibition entitled "As I change, so does she." It is displayed at Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park until February 24, 2025. Then, it will be featured in Naha’s Okinawa Prefectural Museum, from March 7 to May 11; in Fukuoka Art Museum from June 26 to August 31, and lastly, at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, from September 25 to December 7.
The Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition is available in Tokyo until March 31, 2025, at the Warehouse Terrada G1 Building, a few minutes walk from Tennozu Isle station on the Tokyo Monorail Line serving Haneda Airport.
Another exhibition is dedicated to the etching’s master: "Hokusai: Another story in Tokyo" and showcased at the Tokyu Plaza Shibuya from February 1 to June 1, 2025.
The Setouchi Triennale will open over 3 time periods in 2025 : first, from April 18 to May 25; in August; and lastly, from October 3 to November 9 for the autumn part.
In the meantime, the Naoshima New Museum of Art, again designed by Tadao Ando for the Benesse House, will be inaugurated in spring 2025.
Tokyo’s Kanda Matsuri festival will take place around Thursday May 15, 2025.
Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, located in Tennoji Park in the south of the city, will reopened to the public on March 1, 2025 after renovation works, as well as its adjacent garden Keitaku-en.
Tottori Prefectural Museum of Art will be inaugurated on March 30, 2025. As for the Sand Museum, it will host its 16th exhibition themed on Japan starting on April 25, 2025. 2024’s theme was France.
The World Athletics Championships will take place in Tokyo from September 13 to 21, and hosted in particular at the new National Stadium located in Meiji Jingu Gaien.
The Deaflympics games, a sport event for deaf or hard of hearing athletes, will also take place in Tokyo from November 15 to 26, 2025.

Note that the reopening of the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku is still scheduled for spring 2026.

Train and railways news

The Japanese trains 🚅 are also about the experience and travelers might be interested by the following new trends:

The JR Sanyo high-speed line connecting Osaka to Fukuoka will carry One Piece Shinkansen bullet trains starting spring 2025. 3 different train types will sport pirate Luffy and his crew’s images. The 1rst will be blue (Setouchi Blue), and they will travel back and forth between the Kansai area and Kyushu for 1 year. Advance seat booking is highly recommended considering the manga’s popularity.
A Disney Shinkansen, "Wonderful Dreams", will operate on weekends and holidays on the Tokaido Line, between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, from February 21 to mid-September 2025. This limited edition train celebrates the inauguration of DisneySea’s latest land Fantasy Springs. A similar train called "Magical Journey" has started operating on the line connecting Tokyo to Hokkaido in October 2024 and will be until June 2025.
The JR Chuo Line, that runs across Tokyo and connects to Otsuki station in Yamanashi prefecture, and also serves Mount Takao and Kawaguchiko, is now offering double-decker Green Car 🚙 (1rst class) carriages. They will be available for an additional fee starting spring 2025.
Nozomi Shinkansen, the fastest trains on the Tokaido Line, will have a reduced number of "non-reserved seats" cars in 2025. On the 250 non-reserved seats usually available on a train, 85 will become reserved seats, charging an additional fee.

On a side note, iconic Doctor Yellow Shinkansen operated by the JR Central company made its last trip on January 29, 2025. One of the densha otaku’s all-times favorite trains, it was not used for passengers transport but for the maintenance of the bullet trains’ rail tracks. The other yellow Shinkansen operated by JR West will be retired in 2027.

The collaboration between JAL and Universal Studios Japan is also worth mentioning. Marking the extension of Super Nintendo World, domestic flights taking off Itami Airport will fly until June 2026 sporting Nintendo’s beloved characters, especially Mario and Donkey Kong.

Anniversaries and commemorations

Lastly, a few important dates should be noted in Japan’s 2025 calendar:

January 17, 2025, commemorated the 30th anniversary of the great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake that hit Kobe and its area in 1995. The Kobe Luminarie illuminations are organized in memory of the victims of the natural disaster.
2025 is also the 80th anniversary of August 1945’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.
The Comiket, organized for the 1rst time in 1975, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025.
The Super Mario Bros. game celebrates 40th years since its initial release in Japan on September 13, 1985.
Tokyo’s Yamanote loop line will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its official completion in 1925.
Shiretoko Peninsula, in the north-east of Hokkaido, will celebrate its 60th anniversary as a Japanese National Park and the 20th as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage.