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The actual new year. Cherry blossoms peak, the fiscal calendar resets, and the trains fill up with people wearing suits that are clearly being worn for the first time. Late in the month, koinobori go up over rooftops as a quiet announcement that Golden Week is about to start.
April 2026
Dates for 2026
April 1
Late Mar - mid Apr · Nature
Cherry blossom viewing, full bloom in Tokyo and Kyoto. Blue tarps go down under the best trees as early as 7 AM held by the most junior person in the office or club; food and drink arrive at sunset. The bloom window is short — peak to petal-fall is roughly a week — and people genuinely build their week around it.
Early Apr · Tradition
First-day-of-school and first-day-of-work ceremonies. Six-year-olds in oversized randoseru backpacks photographed under the school's cherry tree by both parents; a few weeks later, new university graduates in identical recruit suits sitting through their first corporate ceremony. The cherry blossoms are still up. The visual is deliberate.
Apr 1 · Tradition
Japan's fiscal and academic year both start April 1. Personnel transfers (jinji-idō) take effect, new business cards get exchanged at scale, posters with the new year's theme go up in train stations and convenience stores. The unspoken rule that you wear new clothes is real — department stores run business-suit sales mid-March.
Late Mar - mid Apr · Nature
Cherry blossom viewing, full bloom in Tokyo and Kyoto. Blue tarps go down under the best trees as early as 7 AM held by the most junior person in the office or club; food and drink arrive at sunset. The bloom window is short — peak to petal-fall is roughly a week — and people genuinely build their week around it.
Early Apr · Tradition
First-day-of-school and first-day-of-work ceremonies. Six-year-olds in oversized randoseru backpacks photographed under the school's cherry tree by both parents; a few weeks later, new university graduates in identical recruit suits sitting through their first corporate ceremony. The cherry blossoms are still up. The visual is deliberate.
Apr 1 · Tradition
Japan's fiscal and academic year both start April 1. Personnel transfers (jinji-idō) take effect, new business cards get exchanged at scale, posters with the new year's theme go up in train stations and convenience stores. The unspoken rule that you wear new clothes is real — department stores run business-suit sales mid-March.
Late Apr - May 5 · Nature
Carp-shaped wind streamers go up on tall poles in front yards in late April, leading into Children's Day on May 5. Traditionally one per son in the household, black for the father, red for the mother, smaller ones in blue and green for the children. In river towns you'll see hundreds strung across a river — local civic projects that have become real photo destinations.