Time difference between Tokyo and London

The gap is not the same all year

Every converter gives one number for this pair. That number is right for most of the year and wrong for part of it, because Tokyo does not change its clocks and London goes forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October.

Tokyo stays put all year while London moves, so the gap changes twice a year from London's side alone. A recurring meeting set in Tokyo's calendar will drift by an hour without anyone touching it.

About Tokyo and London

Japan is UTC+9 with no daylight saving anywhere, and has not had it since the occupation ended in 1952. The whole country runs one zone and the business day starts early, so the useful overlap with Europe is Japan's late afternoon.

London is the reference the rest of the system is measured from: Greenwich sits inside the city, and UTC±0 is its winter time. It does not stay there — Britain moves to UTC+1 for seven months of the year, which is why "London is GMT" is wrong more often than it is right.

What 8 hours actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in Tokyo is 1:00 AM to 9:00 AM in London. Somebody has to be outside their working day, and the only question is who — so the useful thing is to decide that once rather than rediscover it every time.

The closest the two working days come is 5:00 PM in Tokyo, which is 9:00 AM in London — both inside office hours, just barely. That is the slot to use, and it is the one people who work this pair already default to.

At 8 hours the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in Tokyo is 4:00 AM the same day in London, but the ends of the working day do cross. "Tomorrow morning" means different things to the two of you, and a deadline given without a date attached will be missed by one side or the other.

When they can both be at their desks

Nine-to-five in Tokyo and nine-to-five in London do not overlap at all. With 8 hours between them, one side is always outside working hours, and the practical question is which side takes the early start or the late finish rather than when to meet.

Tokyo

London

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How far apart Tokyo and London are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 9,559 km (5,939 miles). Flown along that line, an airliner at cruising speed takes roughly 12 hours in the air — actual routings add to it, and whether a nonstop service exists depends on the airlines rather than the distance.

Over that distance you cross 8 hours of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 8 hours takes most people 8 days or so to absorb. Flying west to London is the easier direction — you gain the hours, and staying up later comes more naturally than going to bed early.

Tokyo to London, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 8 hours.

Frequently asked questions