Live time conversion and hour-by-hour comparison
This page shows the live time conversion between London and Tokyo. The hour-by-hour chart above makes it easy to find overlapping business hours for meetings or calls. Green highlights indicate standard business hours (9 AM – 5 PM) in each city.
London and Tokyo are 9 hours apart (8 during BST). The overlap window exists but is tight: 8-9 AM GMT catches 5-6 PM JST — the start of London's day meets the end of Tokyo's. This is the most common time for UK-Japan business calls. A 9 AM London meeting pushes Tokyo to 6 PM, which many Japanese professionals will accept for important cross-border discussions.
The London Stock Exchange (8 AM to 4:30 PM GMT) and Tokyo Stock Exchange (9 AM to 3 PM JST) have minimal direct overlap. TSE closes at 3 PM JST (6 AM GMT) — three hours before LSE opens. However, both markets inform each other through overnight positioning. London traders arrive to find their positions adjusted by Asian session movements, and Tokyo's next-morning open reflects London's previous afternoon trading.
The UK and Japan signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2020, strengthening bilateral trade. Japanese companies have historically invested heavily in the UK — Nissan's Sunderland plant, Toyota's Burnaston factory, and Honda's Swindon facility (closed 2021) all reflected Japan-UK industrial ties. Scheduling between London and Tokyo is a daily reality for automotive, financial, and professional services firms.
For regular UK-Japan collaboration, the most sustainable approach is alternating who takes the uncomfortable time. Tokyo professionals taking an early morning call (8 AM JST = 11 PM GMT) one week, London professionals taking a late evening call (7 PM GMT = 4 AM JST next day) the next. Most teams settle on the 8-9 AM GMT / 5-6 PM JST window as the daily touchpoint and use asynchronous tools for everything else.