Calendar & Climate in Japan
The Particularities of the Japanese Seasons
One of the specificities of the Japanese climate is that its seasons are extremely marked, offering four different aspects of each visited landscape and destinations. Periods of the year are well delimited and therefore able to promote specific types of events.
In Japan, it is also being said that there are six seasons, including tsuyu (strong rains in June) and akisame (October ones). The traditional calendar, inspired by the 24 Chinese periods, even counts up to 72 periods, each made of 5 days!
Of course, the weather is more or less delimited depending on the seasons. Thus, Hokkaido, in the North, will stay cool even in summer and will welcome people keen on winter sports, while Okinawa, the southernmost point of Japan, will keep a tropical weather all year round, with heat waves in summer.
These are even more reasons to travel across Japan by geography and seasons!
You can also look at the weather forecast in Japan and the coming days’ weather in the country.
As the rest of the world, Japan has been impacted by climate change. January 2020 was established the warmest since the first recording of temperatures in the archipelago. Kumagaya, in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, is often mentioned as the hottest city in Japan, with heat peaks at 41°C (105,8°F) in the last years.