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What's on · Tue 27 Oct 2026

Japan in December 2026: what's on

The illuminations at full blaze, Christmas the Japanese way, the first snow villages opening in the north, and a year that closes with Beethoven's Ninth, the Arima Kinen and the countdown at Makuhari. What the calendar holds this December.

The short answer: December is when Japan turns its lights on. The winter illuminations run at full strength in every big city, Christmas is a season of markets, trees and concerts rather than a holiday, and the snow country opens its winter villages in the north. The calendar holds 392 events that touch December, 219 of them beginning in the month, and the year closes with Beethoven's Ninth in every major hall, the Arima Kinen at Nakayama and the countdown festivals at Makuhari Messe. These are the ones to plan around, each with its date status shown the way it appears on its own page.

Illuminations and Christmas

The great displays that switched on in November run all month. Nabana no Sato in Kuwana, one of the largest illumination events in the country, runs to the end of May. Sapporo pairs the White Illumination on Odori Park, first held in 1981, with the Munich Christmas Market in Sapporo, which closes on Christmas Day. December adds its own openings: the Sendai Pageant of Starlight lights the zelkova trees of Jozenji-dori from 4 to 27 December, and in Hakodate a giant Christmas tree floats in the harbour in front of the red brick warehouses for the Hakodate Christmas Fantasy, 1 to 25 December. Mind the closing dates in the cities: Osaka's Midosuji Illumination ends on New Year's Eve, and Tokyo's Roppongi Hills Keyakizaka lights end on Christmas Day.

One December display comes with a bookable tour attached: the bus tour from Nagoya to Nabana no Sato, pairing the Nagashima outlet mall with about three hours at the illuminations, on sale now for dates inside the season.

Book the Nabana no Sato illumination bus tourvia Klook · affiliate link

Festivals and seasonal

The month's one great matsuri comes early. The Chichibu Night Festival, the annual festival of Chichibu Shrine, runs on 2 and 3 December, with six decorated floats paraded through the town and winter fireworks on the main day. The last of the autumn colour holds into the first half of the month: the Mount Takao Autumn Leaves Festival runs to 13 December, and Kyoto's Eikando maple illumination and the Minoo Maple Festival both close on 6 December. Then the season turns. In Hokkaido, the Tomamu Ice Village opens on 20 December at Hoshino Resorts Tomamu, a night village of ice domes with an ice chapel, an ice bar and an ice slide. Beside the Ningle Terrace cabins in Furano, Furano Kan Kan Mura is due to open the same day, with an ice bar, snow domes and tube slides; its dates are still tentative on our calendar, so check its page before you plan around it. On 26 December the Zao Juhyo season opens above Zao Onsen in Yamagata, when the fir trees on the slopes coat in ice and snow, with light-ups on selected nights. The year ends on Miyajima, where the Chinkasai fire rite at Itsukushima Shrine carries around a thousand pine torches to the beach on New Year's Eve.

Arts and stage

December is kabuki's showcase month. Kyoto's Kaomise at the Minamiza, the season that presents the year's acting line-up, runs from 1 to 24 December in the Gion theatre. In Tokyo, the December Grand Kabuki at Kabuki-za runs from 2 to 25 December, in three parts a day. Puppet theatre takes its December turn at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Playhouse, where the December Bunraku performance runs from 6 to 19 December. The National Ballet of Japan dances Will Tuckett's The Nutcracker at the New National Theatre Tokyo from 18 December into the New Year, and the Takarazuka Revue's Elisabeth: Rondo of Love and Death opens at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater on 19 December and runs to 7 February. In Fukuoka, Miss Saigon plays Hakataza from 24 to 27 December.

The fan calendar closes the year at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. Tokyo Comic Con runs from 11 to 13 December, Shueisha's Jump Festa 2027 follows on 19 and 20 December, and the year ends back in Tokyo at Big Sight with Comic Market 109, the Winter Comiket, from 29 to 31 December.

Music

No piece of music belongs to a month the way Beethoven's Ninth belongs to December in Japan. Orchestras across the country close their year with it: the calendar lists eleven Ninth concerts in December alone. The NHK Symphony Orchestra plays its Beethoven 9th concerts in Tokyo from 17 to 23 December, the Nagoya Philharmonic and the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra play theirs on 18 and 19 December and 18 December, and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra follows on 26 and 27 December. The Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra spreads its Ninth across three halls on 25, 26 and 27 December, the Tokyo City Philharmonic plays on 28 December, and the Osaka Philharmonic closes the sequence on 29 December. Christmas itself has its concerts: Bach Collegium Japan performs the Messiah at Suntory Hall on 24 December. Then the year goes out loud. Countdown Japan 26/27, the year-end indoor rock festival at Makuhari Messe, runs from 26 to 31 December and closes with the New Year countdown, while the classical halls mark the same night with Silvester concerts, among them Suntory Hall's Die Fledermaus highlights on 31 December.

Sport

Two marathons share Sunday 6 December: the Fukuoka International Marathon, the elite men's invitational with a long history as a championship selection race, and the 40th NAHA Marathon in Okinawa, a loop through the south of the island with a field of around 30,000. A week later, on 13 December, the Mt. Fuji Marathon loops Lake Kawaguchi and Lake Saiko under the mountain, weather permitting. The Japan Rugby League One season opens on 12 December, with five fixtures on the first day. Skating takes the Christmas days: the Japan Figure Skating Championships, the 95th edition, run from 24 to 27 December at the RACTAB Dome in Kadoma, Osaka, where the national titles and world championship selection are decided. The sporting year then ends the way it always ends, at the races: the Arima Kinen, the fan-voted Grand Prix over 2,500 metres at Nakayama, runs on Sunday 27 December.

The full month, all 47 prefectures, is on the events calendar; set the month filter to December and it narrows to exactly this list.

More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.