May divides into two distinct halves. The first week carries Golden Week, a run of national holidays that makes it the single busiest week of the year to travel inside Japan. Behind that crowded week, the rest of the month settles into some of the most comfortable weather of the year, fresh green (shinryoku) filling the country's parks and mountainsides as Hokkaido's own, later cherry blossom season finally arrives in the north.
the weather
The weather
Tokyo's May days average a high of 23.6°C and a low of 14.6°C. Kyoto runs close to the same figures, 25.1°C by day and 14.5°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 17.9°C and a low of 9°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 139.7 millimetres of precipitation across around 7.4 days with measurable rain in May, while Sapporo's own May total is 55.5 millimetres, mostly as rain by this point in the year.
in season
What is in season
- Golden Week: Showa Day (29 April), Constitution Memorial Day (3 May), Greenery Day (4 May) and Children's Day (5 May), four fixed national holidays clustered together.
- Hokkaido's cherry blossom season, weeks behind Honshu's, typically reaches its own peak in the first ten days of May.
- Fresh green (shinryoku) covers the country's mountains and parks through the month.
- Bonito (katsuo) season begins on southern coasts.
- Wisteria continues from late April into the first half of May in gardens further north.
beyond the three cities
Beyond Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo
Hokkaido's later cherry blossom is the clearest regional contrast May offers, still opening in the first days of the month while the rest of the country has moved on to fresh green. Okinawa, at the opposite end of the map, is already close to its own rainy season by May, weeks ahead of the rest of Japan.
closed and crowded
What is closed, and what is crowded
Golden Week, the run of holidays spanning the very end of April into the first days of May, is the busiest domestic travel week of the Japanese year: trains, flights and popular sites run at capacity, and many small, family-run restaurants close for the week entirely. Once Golden Week ends, the rest of May is comparatively calm, among the more pleasant months to be in Japan without the crowds of April or November, and hotel rates in Kyoto and Tokyo generally ease back once the holiday itself has passed. 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
Light layers with a jacket for the evenings through most of the month. Rain becomes more likely toward the end of May, particularly in the south, as the rainy season begins to move up from Okinawa, so a compact umbrella is worth carrying by then. 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 May
The Cherry Blossom Tour of Hokkaido runs through 10 May 2027, thirteen days at $18,500 per person, timed to the north's own later bloom, with a deposit of USD $3,500 per person and the balance due 95 days before travel. Outside that window, and for the rest of May, guests are directed to the Custom Tour of Japan, on their own dates and with no ceiling on party size.
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. May sits between April and June on that calendar, and the full set is gathered in The Japan Edition's Seasons hub.