Live time conversion and hour-by-hour comparison
This page shows the live time conversion between Tokyo and New York. 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.
Looking west from Tokyo, New York is 14 hours behind during EST and 13 hours behind during EDT. When Tokyo's business day starts at 9 AM JST, New York is finishing the previous day at 7 PM ET (or 8 PM EST). This means Tokyo professionals who need to coordinate with New York typically take late-evening calls — a common practice in Japanese business culture where after-hours work is more accepted than in many Western countries.
The Tokyo-New York axis is critical for the automotive industry. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Subaru all manage US operations — their largest market — from Japan. Product decisions made in Tokyo during Japanese business hours are communicated to US dealerships and operations teams, with New York-based corporate offices serving as the coordination hub. Critical decisions often require real-time calls across the 13-14 hour gap.
The TSE close at 3 PM JST (1 AM ET) and NYSE open at 9:30 AM ET (11:30 PM JST) create a natural market handoff. Tokyo's afternoon trading sets positioning for overnight US sessions, and New York's close influences Tokyo's next morning. Traders spanning both markets effectively work around the clock, with the 'quiet period' (US close to Tokyo open) being the smallest gap in the global trading relay.
Tokyo-based professionals scheduling with New York should target 8-9 PM JST (6-7 AM ET) for an early-morning New York catch-up, or 10-11 PM JST (8-9 AM ET) for core New York morning hours. The latter pushes into late Tokyo evening but catches New York at peak alertness. For less urgent coordination, 7-8 AM JST (5-6 PM ET the previous day) catches New York before they sign off.