Behind the calendar · Fri 23 Oct 2026
How we check every date on this site
A calendar is only worth having if its dates are right. This is the standard every event on Japan What's On has to meet before it appears, and what the labels mean.
Two kinds of dates
Every event here carries one of two labels. Confirmed dates means the organiser, the venue or an official tourism body has published the dates for this edition, and we have read them at the source. Expected window means the next edition has not been announced yet, and the dates shown come from the previous edition or from the event's fixed place in the calendar, a shrine festival that always falls on the same days, a season that opens when the snow does. Expected windows are planning aids, labelled as such everywhere they appear, and they never carry the confirmed label until the announcement lands and we have checked it.
Where the dates come from
The source of record, in order: the event's own organiser or official site; the prefecture or city tourism body; the venue; an official governing body for sport. Every event page names its source and the date we last verified it. If two sources disagree, the organiser wins, and the disagreement usually turns out to be real information: a festival with several sites often runs different dates at each one, which is exactly the kind of detail a copied calendar flattens away.
What happens between editions
Dates get rechecked as editions approach and whenever an organiser announces a change, a postponement or a cancellation. Events are occasionally cancelled outright, for weather, for money, once in a while for good, and a calendar that never removes anything slowly becomes a work of fiction. Ours removes them.
What we never do
We do not copy dates from other calendars without reading the underlying source, we do not present an expected window as a confirmed date, and we do not leave an event standing after its source has moved or cancelled it. If you spot a date that looks wrong, the contact details on the About page reach a person, and corrections go in the same day we can verify them.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.