Golden Week and Obon: Scheduling Around Japan's Two Main Holiday Clusters

Two periods each year make Japanese business contacts essentially unreachable: Golden Week in late April and early May, and Obon in mid-August. If you have a quarterly plan or project timeline that involves Japanese partners or customers, these go on the calendar first.

Golden Week (late April – early May)

Four national holidays fall within seven days:

• Showa Day: 29 April
• Constitution Day: 3 May
• Greenery Day: 4 May
• Children’s Day: 5 May

The gaps between them are usually bridged with annual leave, making the effective shutdown roughly 27 April through 6 May. Don’t expect responses. Don’t schedule deadlines, launches, or contract signings that need Japanese sign-off during this period or in the final week of April — move those to before 25 April.

Obon (mid-August)

Obon is a Buddhist observance during which people return home to honour ancestors. It’s not officially a national holiday, so it won’t appear in standard calendar holiday lists — but most Japanese companies give the week off anyway. The official observance is typically 13–16 August; the practical unavailability window is 10–18 August. Add this manually when planning August milestones.

Other periods worth knowing

New Year (Oshōgatsu): 29 December through 3 January is a near-universal shutdown. The working year restarts on 4 January.

Silver Week: Occasionally in September, national holidays fall in a way that creates a 4–5 day cluster. Happens roughly every 5–6 years — worth checking for the current year.

One other thing: Japan doesn’t observe daylight saving time. The offset from UTC is always UTC+9. Recurring meetings with Japanese contacts don’t drift when your clocks change — but the gap does shift by an hour when you move to summer time, since you’re moving and they’re not. Use meetwhen with Asia/Tokyo to see the current overlap.