Japan in autumn 2026: koyo peak dates city by city, and the data you need

Japan's autumn colors (koyo) move from north to south over about six weeks, and in 2026 they are running late. The Japan Meteorological Corporation's forecast, published on September 2, 2026, says high temperatures across the country push both the red maples (momiji) and the yellow ginkgo later than in a typical year. These are the expected peak dates for the main cities, read on October 21, 2026:

City	Yellow (ginkgo) peak	Red (maple) peak
Sapporo	November 6	November 7
Aomori	November 6	November 13
Sendai	November 29	November 25
Nagano	November 14	November 21
Kanazawa	November 10	November 30
Tokyo	November 26	November 29
Nagoya	November 17	December 2
Osaka	November 24	December 4
Kyoto	November 27	December 11
Hiroshima	November 20	November 28
Fukuoka	November 27	December 7
Kagoshima	November 27	December 10

"Peak" means the day the trees are expected to be at full color. In practice you get a good week on either side, and gardens with planted maples (Kyoto's temples, Tokyo's Rikugien) hold their color a few days longer than mountain forests. Forecasts are updated through the season; the sources below carry the latest revision.

Early November: Hokkaido and Tohoku. Sapporo's ginkgo avenue at Hokkaido University peaks around November 6, and the maples at Jozankei outside the city are a week ahead of that. Aomori's Oirase Gorge and Lake Towada hit their red peak around November 13: this is the trip for people who want foliage without crowds.

Mid-November: the mountains. Nagano (peak November 21) means Kamikochi, Matsumoto Castle and the Togakushi shrines; Nikko, two hours north of Tokyo, is in the same window. Kanazawa's Kenrokuen garden turns red around November 30 and is a good pairing with the Alps.

Late November: Tokyo. Ginkgo first (November 26) at Meiji Jingu Gaien's avenue and the University of Tokyo, then maples (November 29) at Rikugien, Koishikawa Korakuen and Mount Takao. Many Tokyo gardens run evening illuminations in this window; dates are announced by each garden in late October.

Early December: Kyoto, Osaka, Nara. This is the big one and 2026 is late: Osaka around December 4, Kyoto around December 11. Tofuku-ji, Eikando and Kiyomizu-dera are the famous names and the busiest; Nanzen-ji's sub-temples, Enko-ji and the Takao valley are quieter. Book Kyoto hotels now; the first two weeks of December are sold at cherry-blossom prices.

Second week of December: Kyushu. Fukuoka (December 7) and Kagoshima (December 10) close the season. If your dates are fixed for mid-December, go south.

A koyo trip is a maps-and-trains trip. Google Maps or Apple Maps in a city uses roughly 5–10 MB an hour of navigation, the Japan Transit Planner and Suica apps a few megabytes a day, messaging and email a few more. The two things that burn data are photo backups (a day of phone photos uploads 300–600 MB on a cellular connection) and social video. Realistic budgets, from the figures in our help center:

• Light day (maps, messages, a few posts): 300–500 MB
• Normal day (plus photo backup and some video): about 1 GB
• Heavy day (streaming on the Shinkansen, video calls home): 2–3 GB

For a 10-day trip that is 5–10 GB for most people. Hotel and Shinkansen Wi-Fi are free and good enough for the big uploads, so set photo backup to Wi-Fi only and the cellular budget drops.

VoyaSIM's Japan eSIM runs on NTT docomo, KDDI/au, SoftBank and Rakuten Mobile, all with 5G where the network and your phone support it. Your phone joins whichever partner has the strongest signal, so there is nothing to pick. Coverage follows those networks: every city, every Shinkansen line, most ski and onsen towns; remote trails in the Japan Alps are the exception for every operator.

Live prices on October 21, 2026, from the VoyaSIM Japan catalog:

Plan	Price	Fits
3 GB, 15 days	$4.20	A one-week city trip with Wi-Fi for backups
10 GB, 30 days	$9.40	Ten days of maps, trains and photos without thinking about it
1 GB per day, daily-renewing	$2.50 per day	Heavy users who want a fresh allowance every morning
20 GB, 30 days	$16.40	Two weeks, two travelers sharing by hotspot

Install the eSIM at home over Wi-Fi; the plan starts counting only when the phone first connects in Japan, so there is nothing to lose by doing it early. Keep your home SIM on for calls and bank SMS, with its data roaming switched off; the VoyaSIM line carries the data. If the leaves run even later than forecast and you extend the trip, the plan can be topped up from My eSIMs without a new QR code.

• A battery pack. Kyoto temple illuminations run after dark in near-freezing air, and cold batteries drain fast; the phone that is also your map, ticket and camera needs a spare.
• An IC card on the phone. Suica and ICOCA work in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, including on JR, subways and most buses; top it up with a foreign card.
• A plan for the crowds. Kyoto's famous temples open timed night entries in peak weeks; buy ahead or go at opening time. Tourist data traffic at Kiyomizu-dera on a December weekend is heavy, and a 5G plan handles it better than 4G.