Live time conversion and hour-by-hour comparison
This page shows the live time conversion between New York 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.
The 14-hour gap (13 during EDT) between New York and Tokyo means you're often scheduling across different calendar days. When it's 9 AM Monday in New York, it's 11 PM Monday in Tokyo. When it's 9 AM Monday in Tokyo, it's 7 PM Sunday in New York. This date-crossing dynamic makes specifying both the time AND date essential for every meeting invite.
The realistic overlap for both cities is narrow. The best window: 7-9 PM ET catches 9-11 AM JST the next day. Morning Tokyo professionals are fresh, and evening New York professionals can take a final call before signing off. Alternatively, 7-8 AM ET catches 9-10 PM JST — doable for important calls but pushing Tokyo into personal time. There is no window where both cities are in standard 9-5 business hours simultaneously.
NYSE and TSE have zero overlap in trading hours. NYSE trades 9:30 AM to 4 PM ET; TSE trades 9 AM to 3 PM JST (7 PM to 1 AM ET the previous night). This means Asian market movements set the tone before New York opens, and New York's close affects the next morning in Tokyo. Financial professionals monitoring both markets need to track overnight movements — the concept of 'Asian overnight session' is driven by this time gap.
Japanese business culture values punctuality even more than American culture. Being exactly on time (not a minute late) is expected. Conference calls with Tokyo should start precisely at the scheduled time. Also note that Japanese professionals may stay at the office late to accommodate an important US call but won't appreciate if the US side treats the call casually or starts late.