Japan operates on Japan Standard Time (JST), which is 9 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+9). Japan uses a single timezone across the entire country—from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south—and does not observe daylight saving time.
Major cities including Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama, Nagoya, Sapporo, and Fukuoka all follow the same time. Japan shares its timezone with South Korea, Palau, and parts of Indonesia (East Indonesia Time).
Japan experimented with daylight saving time during the US occupation (1948-1951) but abolished it due to public opposition. Despite spanning over 3,000 km from east to west, Japan maintains a single timezone. This means sunrise in the eastern islands can be over an hour earlier than in the west. Japan is known for its punctuality—trains apologize for delays of just one minute.