---
title: "Japan's four seasons: what happens when, from cherry blossoms to snow"
description: "Japan's weather agency counts spring from March, summer from June, autumn from September and winter from December. The 30-year average dates for cherry blossoms, the rainy season, typhoons, autumn leaves and snow."
url: https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/japanese-seasons
language: en
published: 2026-11-11
category: "Travel basics › Everyday Japan"
tags: ["Seasons"]
author: "Oginoya Editorial Team"
publisher: "Oginoya Co., Ltd."
translations:
  zh-TW: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-tw/articles/japanese-seasons
  ko: https://kama-meshi.com/ko/articles/japanese-seasons
  zh-CN: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-cn/articles/japanese-seasons
  zh-HK: https://kama-meshi.com/zh-hk/articles/japanese-seasons
  th: https://kama-meshi.com/th/articles/japanese-seasons
  de: https://kama-meshi.com/de/articles/japanese-seasons
  fr: https://kama-meshi.com/fr/articles/japanese-seasons
  es: https://kama-meshi.com/es/articles/japanese-seasons
---

# Japan's four seasons: what happens when, from cherry blossoms to snow

![Branches of white cherry blossoms reaching over green water, with fallen petals floating on the surface](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/chidorigafuchi-cherry-blossoms-2014.BMjTc26X_Z1xa9m4.webp)

The Japan Meteorological Agency counts spring as March to May, summer as June to August, autumn as September to November and winter as December to February. Within those months the cherry blossoms open northward from Okinawa in January to Hokkaido in May, a rainy season of about six weeks begins in Tokyo in early June, typhoons peak in August and September, the maples redden southward from October to December, and winter snow falls on the Sea of Japan side while the Pacific side stays clear.

The agency's dates and figures given here are its normals, the averages of the 30 years from 1991 to 2020.

## North and south

Sapporo, in Hokkaido in the north, has a mean temperature over the year of 9.2°C, Tokyo 15.8°C, and Naha, in Okinawa in the south, 23.3°C. In January the three cities average −3.2°C, 5.4°C and 17.3°C, and in August 22.3°C, 26.9°C and 29.0°C.

The cherry blossoms open and the maples turn red in six cities on these dates.

| City | Cherry blossoms open | Maples turn red |
|---|---|---|
| Fukuoka | March 22 | December 1 |
| Kyoto | March 26 | December 5 |
| Tokyo | March 24 | November 28 |
| Sendai | April 8 | November 21 |
| Sapporo | May 1 | October 28 |
| Kushiro | May 16 | October 16 |

## Spring: the cherry blossom front

The agency watches a designated sample tree at each observing station. The opening day is the first day on which five or six or more flowers are open on the sample tree, and full bloom is the first day on which about 80 percent or more of its buds have opened. The tree is mainly the Somei-yoshino, a cultivar that dates from the end of the Edo period (1603–1868).

In Okinawa the stations observe a different cherry, the *hikan-zakura*, which opens in Naha on January 16. The Somei-yoshino opens on March 22 in Fukuoka and on May 1 in Sapporo, 40 days later. In Kushiro, in eastern Hokkaido, the tree observed is the *Ezo-yamazakura*. Full bloom in Tokyo comes on March 31, seven days after the opening day.

A line drawn through the places where the blossoms open on the same day is the *sakura zensen*, the cherry blossom front, named for its likeness to a front on a weather map. Along one front line, the blossoms open two to three days later for every 100 meters of altitude.

[*Hanami*](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/picnic-and-bento) means going out to look at the cherry blossoms while eating and drinking on mats spread on the ground, a custom that developed among the common people of Edo, Osaka and Kyoto in the Edo period.

## The rainy season

*Tsuyu*, the rainy season, is found in the Yangtze basin of China, the south of the Korean Peninsula and Japan except Hokkaido. It is written 梅雨, "plum rain," because it falls when the fruit of the *ume*, the Japanese plum, ripens.

Tsuyu lasts from about May 10 to about June 21 in Okinawa, from about June 7 to about July 19 in the Kantō-Kōshin region, which includes Tokyo, and from about June 15 to about July 28 in northern Tōhoku. The rain of tsuyu makes up about a quarter of the year's precipitation in western Japan and about a fifth in eastern Japan. June is the month with the least sunshine in Tokyo: 124.2 hours, against 192.6 hours in January.

![Wet stone steps climbing between banks of blue hydrangeas under green trees, with a few visitors at the top](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/meigetsuin-hydrangea-2016.Ji2-6sOR_Z1AbQkM.webp "Hydrangeas at the temple Meigetsu-in in Kamakura, June 9, 2016.")

## Typhoons

An average of 25.1 typhoons form in a year. An average of 11.7 typhoons a year bring their centers within 300 kilometers of a weather station somewhere in Japan, and the centers of 3.0 typhoons a year reach the coast of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku or Kyushu.

August has the most typhoons forming, 5.7, and September follows with 5.0. Approaches to Japan average 3.3 in August and 3.3 in September, against 2.1 in July and 1.7 in October. Landfalls average 0.9 in August and 1.0 in September.

Tokyo's wettest months are October, with 234.8 millimeters of precipitation, and September, with 224.9 millimeters. June has 167.8 millimeters.

## Autumn: the red leaves move south

The day of autumn color is the first day on which most of the leaves on the sample tree have turned red. The tree is mainly the *iroha-kaede*, a maple that grows wild in the mountains from southern Tōhoku to Kyushu and is planted in parks and gardens for its autumn color.

The maples turn on October 16 in Kushiro and on December 15 in Kagoshima, in southern Kyushu, 60 days later. The line that joins the places where the maples turn on the same day is the *momiji zensen*, and it travels from north to south, the opposite way to the cherry blossom front.

![Maples in red and orange below a large wooden temple hall with gray tiled roofs](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/tofukuji-maples-2025.CVLAtYaY_ZB7iLh.webp "Maples at the temple Tōfuku-ji in Kyoto, November 24, 2025.")

## Winter: snow on one side, clear skies on the other

In winter a high-pressure system lies over the continent and a low-pressure system develops over the sea east of Japan. The cold northwest wind from the continent takes up water vapor as it crosses the Sea of Japan, is forced upward by the mountains that form the backbone of the islands, and drops snow on the Sea of Japan side. Past the mountains the wind descends and brings clear skies to the Pacific side.

In January Niigata, on the Sea of Japan, has 56.4 hours of sunshine, and Tokyo, on the Pacific side, has 192.6 hours. Snowfall over a year adds up to 479 centimeters in Sapporo, 139 centimeters in Niigata and 8 centimeters in Tokyo. The areas designated as heavy-snowfall areas under a law passed in 1962 cover about 51 percent of Japan's land and hold about 15 percent of its population.

![Two domed huts made of snow at night, lit from inside, with steps between them leading up to a floodlit castle](https://kama-meshi.com/_astro/yokote-kamakura-snow-2023.DKrN_dPk_Ml2n9.webp "*Kamakura*, huts made of snow, at the snow festival in Yokote, Akita Prefecture, February 2023.")

## The calendar's seasons and food

The calendar also carries 24 points called *nijūshi sekki*, one for every 15 degrees that the sun moves along the ecliptic. In 2027 *risshun*, the start of spring, falls on February 4, *rikka*, the start of summer, on May 6, *risshū*, the start of autumn, on August 8, and *rittō*, the start of winter, on November 8. Risshun in 2027 comes 25 days before March 1, the first day of the weather agency's spring.

*Hachijūhachiya*, the 88th night, is the 88th day counted from risshun, May 2 in 2027. Late frosts are over once the 88th night has passed, so farmers take it as the time to begin sowing and tea picking, and tea picked around the 88th night is prized as *shincha*, [new tea](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/japanese-tea-types).

Food has its own word for season: *shun*, the time when a fish, a vegetable or a fruit tastes best. [Washoku](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/what-is-washoku) decorates dishes with the flowers and leaves of the season, and [wagashi](https://kama-meshi.com/en/articles/wagashi-and-seasons), Japanese sweets, include kinds made only at one time of year, such as sakuramochi, made in spring as the cherry blossoms approach.

## References

- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Terms for time" (season definitions)](https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/kishou/know/yougo_hp/toki.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Phenological observations"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/sakura/data/index.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Cherry blossom opening dates"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/sakura/data/sakura_kaika.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Cherry blossom full-bloom dates"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/sakura/data/sakura_mankai.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Dates of maple autumn color"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/sakura/data/phn_014.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Start and end of the rainy season"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/cpd/baiu/sokuhou_baiu.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Typhoon normals"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/yoho/typhoon/statistics/average/average.html)
- [Japan Meteorological Agency, "Climate normals (monthly and annual), Tokyo"](https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=44&block_no=47662)
- [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, "Calendar and Ephemeris 2027: the 24 solar terms"](https://eco.mtk.nao.ac.jp/koyomi/yoko/2027/rekiyou272.html)
- [Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, "Measures for heavy-snowfall areas"](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudoseisaku/chisei/crd_chisei_tk_000010.html)
- [Kotobank, "Baiu (tsuyu)"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A2%85%E9%9B%A8-112670)
- [Kotobank, "Sakura zensen"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A1%9C%E5%89%8D%E7%B7%9A-155667)
- [Kotobank, "Momiji zensen"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%B4%85%E8%91%89%E5%89%8D%E7%B7%9A-155665)
- [Kotobank, "Fuyugata kiatsu haichi"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%86%AC%E5%9E%8B%E6%B0%97%E5%9C%A7%E9%85%8D%E7%BD%AE-155634)
- [Kotobank, "Shun"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%97%AC-529615)
- [Kotobank, "Hachijūhachiya"](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E5%A4%9C-114783)

Image credits (resized for display):

- [Guilhem Vellut / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cherry_blossoms_@_Moat_@_Chidorigafuchi_@_Imperial_palace_(13621565233).jpg), [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 2014
- [pcs34560 / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E9%81%8B%E8%89%AF%E3%81%8F%E7%A9%BA%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F%E3%80%81%E6%98%8E%E6%9C%88%E9%99%A2%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%AC%E5%A0%82%E3%81%AB%E8%87%B3%E3%82%8B%E5%8F%82%E9%81%93_Pcs34560_IMG2551.jpg), Public domain, 2016
- [lumoplank / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tofuku-ji,_Kyoto_-_Tofukuji6597.jpg), [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en), 2025
- [Rarisan / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kamakura_(Yokote%27s_Winter_Festival)_at_Yokote_Castle.jpg), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), 2023