January opens the Japanese year in a mood of quiet observance. The New Year holiday empties the streets of Tokyo and Kyoto for its first three days, department stores and small restaurants alike closed while families keep the old customs at home or at a shrine, and the country does not properly return to business until the second week. Away from the capital, Hokkaido is at the height of its winter, powder snow settling over Niseko and the mountains behind Sapporo in conditions skiers travel from the other side of the world to stand in.
the weather
The weather
Tokyo's January days average a high of 9.8°C and a low of 1.2°C. Kyoto runs close to the same figures, 9.1°C by day and 1.5°C overnight, since both cities sit in the same broad climate band despite Kyoto's inland basin sharpening the extremes at either end of the year. Sapporo is a different country: an average high of -0.4°C and a low of -6.4°C, figures from the Japan Meteorological Agency's published climate normals for 1991 to 2020, the thirty-year average against which every year in Japan is still read. Rain follows the same normals: Tokyo averages 59.7 millimetres of precipitation across around 4.3 days with measurable rain in January, while Sapporo's January total, 108.4 millimetres, falls almost entirely as snow.
in season
What is in season
- New Year decorations (kadomatsu, shimenawa) remain outside homes and shopfronts through the first week, then come down.
- Plum blossom (ume) opens in the far south, Kyushu and parts of Shikoku, by the month's end, weeks ahead of the cherry.
- Ski season in Hokkaido and the Japan Alps is at its deepest and most reliable.
- Coming of Age Day, a national holiday, falls on the second Monday of the month.
- Nabe hot-pot dishes and the last of the New Year's osechi cooking dominate the table.
beyond the three cities
Beyond Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo
Japan in January is not one climate but several held together by name alone. Kyushu, in the far south, runs markedly milder than Tokyo, plum blossom already stirring by the month's end where Tokyo is still deep in winter. Okinawa, further south again, rarely sees a frost at all. Hokkaido sits at the other extreme, its snow cover continuous from December through March and its interior mountains regularly recording temperatures twenty degrees colder than Tokyo's on the same January day.
closed and crowded
What is closed, and what is crowded
The first three days of January, shogatsu, are the one nationwide closure of the Japanese calendar: banks, most museums, many restaurants and the smaller shops close, and department stores that do open keep reduced hours. Airports and long-distance trains are at their busiest in the days immediately either side of New Year's Eve, as the country moves home and back again. From the second week, Japan is otherwise quiet, and January is one of the least crowded months to be in Kyoto or Tokyo, its temples and gardens open without the queues that build later in the year. Opening hours at smaller shops, temples and museums vary enough by day and by property that any single visit is worth confirming the same week, rather than relying on a printed schedule alone.
what to wear
What to wear
A proper winter coat, scarf and gloves for Tokyo and Kyoto, where days are cold but usually dry and clear. Hokkaido asks for a heavier standard again: thermal layers, a windproof outer shell and boots with real grip for ice and packed snow. Comfortable, easily removed shoes are worth choosing whatever the season, since temples, ryokan and traditional restaurants alike expect shoes off at the door, often several times in a single day.
where the tours run
Where Luxury Japan Travel goes in January
No fixed departure of Luxury Japan Travel's own tours runs in January. It is, for exactly that reason, the month most often chosen for the Custom Tour of Japan, built to a guest's own dates and pace rather than a published calendar, and it accommodates every level of fitness and mobility. The Custom Tour has a minimum length of five nights and no ceiling on party size, so a January journey can be as short or as long as the guest's own plans allow.
the year
Continue through the year
This page is one of twelve, one for each month of the Japanese year, each reporting the same weather, season and closure detail in its own month and linking both of its neighbours in the sequence. January sits between December and February on that calendar, and the full set is gathered in The Japan Edition's Seasons hub.