Lifestyle Dec 26, 2021
COVID-safe ways to ring in the new year in Japan
by Rebecca Saunders
With infection rates nationwide dwindling, many are thinking of returning to more traditional celebrations as the year winds down to a close.
National Jan 1, 2021
New Year's Day is the biggest holiday in Japan's calendar, but this year's festivities were subdued following record highs in new coronavirus cases nationwide and calls from the government to stay home. Emperor Naruhito appealed to the public to work together through the pandemic in ...
Travel Dec 28, 2019
Hatsuhinode: Where to see the first sunrise of the decade
by Russell Thomas
There's never a better time to catch sunrise in Japan than at new year. From Tokyo Tower to the coast of Chiba Prefecture, here are 10 of the best places to see the first sunrise of the year near Tokyo.
National Jan 1, 2019
IN PICTURES: Japan says good night to 2018, good morning to 2019
Japan greeted 2019 — the year of the boar, according to the Chinese astrological calendar — Monday evening and Tuesday morning with traditional visits to both major and minor temples and not-so-traditional events, such as the massive one at the famous Shibuya Crossing, where thousands ...
Our Lives | JAPAN LITE Dec 30, 2018
Celebrating New Year's the island way
by Amy Chavez
On the small island where I live in the middle of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, new year celebrations are stalwart traditional. Preparations start a week before when the holiday spirit wafts in on sea breezes tinted with chilling temperatures. The island holds a community ...
National | IN PICTURES Jan 1, 2018
On Sunday, people across Japan marked the passing of 2017 and the arrival of the new year at temples and shrines, both big and small. While the evening of oshōgatsu is celebrated in numerous ways, for many it is a time for spiritual purification and prayer ...
National | AT A GLANCE Jan 5, 2017
A new year, a new prayer, and hopefully luck
by Satoko Kawasaki
New Year's Day is not just the first day of the year in this country — it has a special meaning. Jan. 1 is when people invite a god into their homes — the Shinto deity that presides over safety and prosperity for the year ...
National Jan 1, 2017
2017 rings in across Japan as shrine, temple throngs pray for good year
As people across Japan celebrated the turn of the year, they flocked to shrines and temples Sunday morning for their traditional hatsumode pilgrimage to make a fresh start on New Year's Day. Meaning "the first prayer of the year," hatsumode witnesses hundred of thousands of ...
National | 2017 NEW YEAR SPECIAL Jan 1, 2017
New Year's, or shogatsu in Japan, is a time when people can get a taste of traditional Japan. People generally take the time around the New Year's holidays to relax with their families and engage in traditional activities to remind themselves of their heritage. Below ...
Lifestyle Dec 29, 2016
Head to your local shrine or temple this new year
by Yuki Yamauchi
The sounds of joya-no-kane, the traditional ringing of temple bells 108 times on New Year's Eve, will soon fill the air as Japan gets set for one of its biggest holidays. For those who haven't been here long, New Year's Eve in Japan is a ...
National Jan 1, 2016
Spirits and turnout high as New Year's crowds throng to shrines and temples
People wishing to make a fresh start on New Year's flocked to major shrines and temples across the archipelago Friday morning in the annual ritual known as hatsumode (first visit of the year). Major destinations of wish-makers, including Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Ise Shrine in ...
Lifestyle Dec 24, 2015
Meiji Shrine: grounds to ring in the year
by Daisuke Kikuchi
As a relatively new place of worship, established less than a century ago in 1920, Meiji Shrine was originally based around the concept of wakonyōsai — a belief that treasured the Japanese "soul," while still embracing influences from the West. Its unusual omikuji, therefore, ...