Live time conversion and hour-by-hour comparison
This page shows the live time conversion between Los Angeles 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.
Los Angeles and Tokyo are 17 hours apart during standard time — one of the largest time gaps between major business cities. During PDT, it shrinks to 16 hours. The practical effect: when LA wakes up at 8 AM PT, it's 1 AM the next day in Tokyo. When Tokyo opens at 9 AM JST, it's 4 PM the previous day in LA. You're always scheduling across the international date line.
The LA-Tokyo connection is driven by entertainment (anime, gaming, film co-productions), tech (Sony, PlayStation, Nintendo), and automotive (Toyota, Honda US operations). These industries require regular cross-Pacific coordination despite the extreme time gap. Gaming launch events often straddle both time zones — a Tokyo midnight launch is a morning event in LA.
The only realistic overlap: 4-6 PM PT catches 9-11 AM JST the next day. Late afternoon LA meets morning Tokyo. This is the standard window for US-Japan business calls from the West Coast. Alternatively, very early LA mornings (6-7 AM PT) catch late Tokyo afternoons (11 PM-12 AM JST) — workable but pushing Japanese colleagues into late-night territory.
Direct flights from LA to Tokyo are 11-12 hours. Departing LA in the afternoon, you arrive in Tokyo in the late evening of the following day, losing a calendar day. Returning, you depart Tokyo in the evening and arrive in LA the same morning — gaining a day back. The jet lag adjustment for a 16-17 hour shift is among the most challenging in regular business travel.