New Year in Japan 2026-2027: What Is Closed, What Is Open, and Hatsumode

Shogatsu, the New Year holiday, is the one time of year when Japan really stops. Offices close, banks close, family restaurants put a handwritten notice on the door, and millions of people take the Shinkansen home and then queue at a shrine. If you are in Japan between about 29 December 2026 and 3 January 2027, none of this will spoil your trip, but it does change how you plan it.

This guide keeps two things apart throughout. Where an operator, a shrine or a museum has already announced its arrangements for 2026-27, we say so. Where it has not (as of late October 2026), we describe what it did last winter, and you should treat that as the usual pattern rather than a promise. Most final notices appear in December.

At a Glance

• The 2026-27 calendar: the dates fall Thursday to Sunday, with 4 January a Monday
• What closes: banks, post offices, government offices, many museums, small restaurants
• What stays open: convenience stores, chains, hotels, shrines and temples
• Department stores and fukubukuro
• New Year's Eve trains and holiday timetables
• The Shinkansen peak
• Hatsumode: where to go and when the crowds come
• New Year's Eve, osechi and the first sunrise
• Day by day, 29 December to 4 January

The 2026-27 calendar

This year the holiday lines up neatly. New Year's Eve is Thursday 31 December, New Year's Day is Friday 1 January, and 2 and 3 January fall on the weekend. Most companies close from 29 December or 30 December and go back to work on Monday 4 January.

Two closures are fixed by law, so you can rely on them. Banks are closed from 31 December to 3 January (the Bank of Japan lists the same days for its own offices). National government offices close from 29 December to 3 January, and city and ward offices follow the same days.

What closes

Banks. Closed 31 December to 3 January, reopening Monday 4 January. If you need a counter for anything, such as changing money at a bank, do it by 30 December.

ATMs. These matter more than the banks. Seven Bank, whose ATMs are in every 7-Eleven, says its machines take overseas-issued cards in principle 365 days a year, with Visa and Mastercard accepted around the clock. Japan Post Bank lists its post office ATM hours on 31 December and 1 to 3 January as 7:00 to 21:00, and warns that hours may differ over the New Year. An ATM inside a building that is closed is out of reach, so the convenience store is the safer bet. Take out enough cash on 30 December anyway: small shrines, stalls and some restaurants still take only cash.

Post offices. The usual pattern is that most post office counters close from 31 December to 3 January, while a few large offices keep a counter open. Japan Post publishes the list of offices that open over the holiday in mid-December.

Government offices. Closed 29 December to 3 January. This includes city hall counters. Police boxes (koban), hospitals' emergency departments and the fire service keep working.

Museums. Many close for several days around the turn of the year, and the days vary. The Tokyo National Museum has announced it is closed from 26 to 31 December 2026 and reopens on 1 January 2027 from 12:00 to 20:00. The Kyoto National Museum closed from 29 December 2025 to 1 January 2026 last winter; its dates for this year were not yet on its site in October. Check each museum's own page; general listing sites often skip the New Year days.

Restaurants and small shops. This is where visitors get caught out. Independent restaurants, family-run shops and many izakaya close for anything from two days to a week, typically somewhere between 30 December and 4 January. Opening hours on map apps are often not updated for the holiday. If a particular restaurant matters to you, look for a notice on its door or social media page in December, or ask your hotel to phone.

What stays open

Convenience stores. 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson stay open through the holiday, and most run around the clock as usual. They are where you get cash, a hot meal, a phone charger and a train ticket printout on 1 January.

Chain restaurants. The usual pattern is that the big chains (gyudon shops, family restaurants, fast food, conveyor-belt sushi) stay open, some with shorter hours on 31 December and 1 January. Restaurants inside hotels and large stations are also a safe choice.

Hotels. Open as normal, and fully booked in places people go for the holiday, such as onsen towns and the cities near the big shrines.

Shrines and temples. This is their busiest week of the year. Many large shrines stay open through the night of 31 December. See hatsumode below.

Sights. Some open specially. The Tokyo National Museum's 1 January opening is one example. Observation decks, aquariums and theme parks usually open over the holiday, often with longer hours. Gardens and castles run by local governments are more likely to close for a few days, because they follow the government office calendar.

Department stores and fukubukuro

The old rule was simple: department stores closed on 1 January and opened on 2 January with the first sale of the year (hatsuuri). That is no longer true for all of them.

Takashimaya announced in 2024 that it would close on both 1 and 2 January and start its first sale on 3 January, to improve working conditions for its staff, and other large chains made the same change for the 2025 New Year. In January 2026, Mitsukoshi Isetan, Sogo and Seibu, Odakyu and Keio began their sales on 2 January, while Takashimaya and Daimaru Matsuzakaya opened on 3 January. Some shopping malls, including Lalaport and Tokyo Solamachi, opened on 1 January. The 2026-27 dates had not been announced in October; stores usually publish them between late November and mid-December.

Fukubukuro are the sealed "lucky bags" sold at the first sale, with goods worth more than the price. Popular ones sell out within minutes, and many stores now take orders in advance or online, so the queue outside the door is no longer the only way in.

On 31 December, department stores and many shops usually close early, often in the late afternoon or early evening.

New Year's Eve trains and holiday timetables

From around 30 December to 3 January most railways run a weekend and holiday timetable. Commuter trains are emptier than usual, and long-distance trains are fuller.

On the night of 31 December some lines run all night or add trains after the last regular service so people can get to the big shrines. What is already known for 2026-27:

• JR East said in its winter extra-train announcement of 22 October 2026 that it will run trains after the last regular service on 31 December on six Tokyo-area lines: the Yamanote Line, the Keihin-Tohoku and Negishi Line, the Chuo-Sobu local line, the Chuo Rapid Line, the Yokosuka Line, and the Sobu Main and Narita lines between Chiba and Narita. The Yamanote Line runs in both directions from 1:00 to about 4:50, every 10 to 30 minutes.
• Nagoya City Subway announced on 19 October 2026 that it will run all night on the Higashiyama, Meijo, Meiko, Tsurumai and Sakura-dori lines (not the Kamiiida Line).

For most other operators, the 2026-27 plans come out in December. Last winter (31 December 2025) looked like this:

• Tokyo: Keio ran all night between Shinjuku and Takaosanguchi, and Keisei ran all night between Ueno and Narita. Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway ran no all-night or extra late trains.
• Kansai: Keihan and Kintetsu ran all night on their main lines, Kintetsu with special trains to Ise. JR West ran trains until about 3:00 on the Osaka Loop Line, the JR Yumesaki Line and the Manyo Mahoroba Line. Osaka Metro, Hankyu, Hanshin and Nankai did not run all night.

All-night service usually means a train every 15 minutes to an hour, not the normal timetable. If you are staying far from the shrine you want to visit, check the return trains before you set out.

The Shinkansen peak

The New Year is one of the three busiest travel periods in Japan, together with Golden Week and Obon. People leave cities in the last days of December and come back in the first days of January.

For 2025-26, JR Central reported the reservation peak for the Tokaido Shinkansen as 27 December going out of Tokyo and 3 January coming back. Morning trains leaving Tokyo between 27 and 31 December and afternoon trains arriving in Tokyo between 2 and 4 January were the most crowded. This year 3 January is a Sunday, so expect the return peak around 2 and 3 January.

Already announced for 2026-27: every Nozomi between Tokyo and Hakata runs all reserved, with no unreserved cars, from 25 December 2026 to 5 January 2027. Hikari, Kodama, Mizuho and Sakura keep their unreserved cars. JR sells reserved seats from 10:00 one month before the travel date, and for the peak days that is when you should book.

Going against the flow (into Tokyo or Osaka at the end of December, out of them in early January) is usually easier, and so is travelling on 1 January itself.

Hatsumode: the first shrine visit of the year

Hatsumode is the first visit of the year to a shrine or temple. People pray for the year ahead, buy a new charm (omamori), draw a fortune (omikuji) and return last year's charms to be burned. Most go in the first three days, but any visit up to about mid-January still counts. Visitors are welcome; nobody expects you to know the ritual, and copying the person in front of you is fine.

The big shrines are not quiet. Expect to queue just to get through the gate, and expect police controlling the crowd. The advice below comes from the shrines' own pages for the 2025-26 New Year, since the 2026-27 notices were not yet out in October.

Tokyo and around

Meiji Jingu stays open through the night of 31 December. For the 2025-26 New Year it opened at 6:40 on the 31st and stayed open until 18:30 on 1 January, then 6:40 to 18:00 on 2 and 3 January. The shrine says the busiest times are 22:00 on the 31st to 3:00 on the 1st, and from 10:00 onwards on each of the first three days. So early morning on 2 or 3 January is the gentlest time to go.

At Senso-ji in Asakusa, the New Year's Eve bell (joya no kane) is rung at midnight on Bentenyama, a small hill in the temple grounds, by members of a local association, and the 108 strokes take about 40 minutes. The crowd in the main hall cheers at the first stroke.

Kawasaki Daishi starts the year with a large fire ritual (goma) at midnight on 1 January, timed with the New Year's Eve bell. Naritasan Shinshoji also holds its New Year goma at midnight. It is a 15 minute walk from Keisei Narita or JR Narita station, longer over the New Year, and last year Keisei ran all-night trains there from Ueno.

Kansai

Fushimi Inari Taisha is open around the clock all year, so there is no gate time to plan around. Last New Year the roads nearby were closed to traffic from 31 December to 5 January and the shrine car park from 30 December to 6 January. Keihan ran all night to Fushimi-Inari station, while JR ran no extra trains on the Nara Line. The Kyoto City Tourism Association's Kyoto Kanko Navi site shows a live camera and a forecast of how crowded it will be by day and hour.

At Chion-in in Kyoto, 17 monks ring the temple's great bell on New Year's Eve, one on the main rope and sixteen on smaller ropes. Last year the ringing ran from about 22:40 to 0:35. Watching it needed an advance application (four groups of 500, 3,000 yen) that opened on 1 December, plus 400 tickets sold on the day. Visitors cannot ring the bell themselves. Expect the 2026 arrangements to appear on the temple's site in late November or December.

Sumiyoshi Taisha is where Osaka goes. The shrine's own figure is two million visitors over the first three days every year. Last year its New Year opening began at 22:00 on 31 December and ran to 20:00 on 1 January, with 6:00 to 19:00 on 2 and 3 January. It allowed no food stalls from 31 December to 5 January, to prevent crowd accidents. Nankai Airport Express trains stopped at Sumiyoshitaisha station from 1 to 4 January, between 10:00 and 16:20.

For Ise Grand Shrine, Kintetsu ran all night on 31 December with special trains for Ise. It is a long trip at that hour; going on 2 or 3 January in daylight is easier.

Kyushu

Dazaifu Tenmangu, outside Fukuoka, said on its New Year page last year that it opened at 6:30 on 31 December and stayed open day and night over the first three days. Its traffic map warned that at the peak the drive from the Dazaifu expressway exit can take more than two hours, and pointed people to Nishitetsu or JR trains instead.

A practical note for all of them: shrine car parks close and the roads around them are blocked, so go by train. Large shrines also make the queue one way, so you may come out a different gate from the one you went in.

New Year's Eve, osechi and the first sunrise

Toshikoshi soba. On 31 December people eat a bowl of soba "to cross the year". According to Japan's agriculture ministry the custom spread in the Edo period: the long thin noodles stand for a long life, and because they break easily they also cut off the year's troubles. Soba shops are busy all day on the 31st, and many close early in the evening once the noodles run out. Convenience stores sell it too.

Kohaku. The evening of the 31st belongs to NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen, a song contest between a red team and a white team that runs until shortly before midnight. Many families watch it, then go out for the bell and the shrine.

Joya no kane. Temples ring their bells 108 times around midnight, one for each of the worldly desires in Buddhist teaching. Some small temples let anyone take a turn. At large temples a turn usually needs a ticket booked in advance, and at some, such as Chion-in, only the monks ring it.

Osechi. The New Year meal is osechi ryori, cold dishes packed into stacked lacquer boxes and prepared before the holiday, each with a meaning (black beans for good health, prawns for long life). Department stores and hotels sell osechi sets ordered weeks in advance, and many hotels serve some of it at breakfast on 1 January.

Hatsuhinode. The first sunrise of the year is watched from beaches, hills and observation decks, and some places open early for it. JR East has run a few early-morning trains for sunrise viewing in past years. It is cold and crowded, and sunrise in Tokyo is not until about 6:50.

Day by day, 29 December to 4 January

The table shows the usual pattern. The bank and government days are fixed by law; everything else varies by place, so check the places that matter to you.

If something goes wrong over the holiday, the Japan Visitor Hotline run by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) answers around the clock, including 1 January, on 050-3816-2787, in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.