PST to JST
To get Japan time from Pacific time, add 17 hours in winter or 16 hours from March to November and move to the next day. 6:00 PM in San Francisco is 11:00 AM tomorrow in Tokyo in winter and 10:00 AM tomorrow in summer.
Convert the other way: JST → PST
Flying from the West Coast to Japan
A nonstop from Los Angeles to Tokyo takes around 11 to 12 hours westbound, and the date line eats a day. Leave LAX at 11:00 AM on a Monday in winter and you land at about 4:00 PM on Tuesday, Japan time; in summer the same flight arrives about 3:00 PM. The trip home gives the day back: an evening departure from Haneda typically lands in California in the morning of the same date, before it left by the clock.
Jet lag follows the time difference rather than the flight length. Shifting a body clock by 16 or 17 hours is closer to moving 7 or 8 hours the other way, so many travelers treat Tokyo as "seven hours earlier, a day later" and adjust as if flying to Europe in reverse.
PST to JST conversion table
Every hour of the day, using today's offsets (daylight saving is applied automatically).
| PST | JST |
|---|---|
| 12:00 AM | 4:00 PM |
| 1:00 AM | 5:00 PM |
| 2:00 AM | 6:00 PM |
| 3:00 AM | 7:00 PM |
| 4:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| 5:00 AM | 9:00 PM |
| 6:00 AM | 10:00 PM |
| 7:00 AM | 11:00 PM |
| 8:00 AM | 12:00 AM+1 |
| 9:00 AM | 1:00 AM+1 |
| 10:00 AM | 2:00 AM+1 |
| 11:00 AM | 3:00 AM+1 |
| PST | JST |
|---|---|
| 12:00 PM | 4:00 AM+1 |
| 1:00 PM | 5:00 AM+1 |
| 2:00 PM | 6:00 AM+1 |
| 3:00 PM | 7:00 AM+1 |
| 4:00 PM | 8:00 AM+1 |
| 5:00 PM | 9:00 AM+1 |
| 6:00 PM | 10:00 AM+1 |
| 7:00 PM | 11:00 AM+1 |
| 8:00 PM | 12:00 PM+1 |
| 9:00 PM | 1:00 PM+1 |
| 10:00 PM | 2:00 PM+1 |
| 11:00 PM | 3:00 PM+1 |
Working hours that overlap (9:00–17:00 on both sides)
No weekday working hours overlap; one side has to stretch before 9:00 or after 17:00.
Daylight saving time
- Pacific TimePST / PDT
UTC−8 in winter, UTC−7 in summer
US West Coast
- Japan Standard TimeJST
No daylight saving; all year UTC+9
Japan
Scheduling with Japan from the Pacific coast
A Pacific evening is the Japanese working morning. A 5:00 PM call in Seattle lands at 10:00 AM in Tokyo in winter and 9:00 AM in summer, the cleanest slot on both sides. Avoid Friday afternoons in California: 4:00 PM Friday Pacific is already 9:00 AM Saturday in Japan in winter.
Plan around Japanese holidays, not just the time. Golden Week links several national holidays in late April and early May, Obon empties offices in mid-August, and most companies close from about December 29 to January 3. A message sent on Christmas Eve in California may not be read until January 4 in Tokyo. To count working days before a launch, try days between dates.
Other conversions with these zones
Frequently asked questions
- What is 6 PM Pacific in Japan time?
- 11:00 AM the next day in winter and 10:00 AM the next day while the West Coast is on PDT.
- Do I lose a day flying from California to Japan?
- On the calendar, yes: crossing the international date line westbound skips ahead a day. You get it back on the return flight, which lands before the clock time you departed.
- When should a West Coast team avoid scheduling calls with Japan?
- Friday afternoons, which are Saturday mornings in Japan, plus Golden Week, mid-August Obon and the New Year closure.
- Does the Pacific–Japan gap change on the same day as US clocks?
- Yes. Japan has no daylight saving time, so the gap changes only on the US dates: it becomes 16 hours on the second Sunday of March and 17 hours on the first Sunday of November.