Golden Week Japan Traffic: Beating the Holiday Jams

Golden Week and Obon are when Japan itself goes on holiday, heads home and travels. Visitors arriving at these times may not find central Tokyo especially busy; Golden Week traffic in Japan really builds on the expressways out to popular getaways. If you plan to land and drive straight to Hakone, Lake Kawaguchiko or similar, the timing of your transfer matters.

When the two holidays fall

• Golden Week is built around the public holidays of 29 April (Showa Day), 3 May (Constitution Day), 4 May (Greenery Day) and 5 May (Children's Day), plus weekends, so its length varies by year (see the Cabinet Office list of national holidays).
• Obon usually falls in mid-August. It is not a public holiday, but many companies close and people travel home. Mountain Day on 11 August is a public holiday and often joins up with the Obon break.

Where Golden Week traffic jams are

Holiday congestion follows a pattern: outbound from Tokyo in the first half, back into Tokyo in the second. Hakone is usually reached via the Tomei Expressway and Lake Kawaguchiko via the Chuo Expressway, both well-known holiday bottlenecks. The NEXCO expressway companies publish congestion forecasts before each holiday, showing the worst days and hours, on Drive Plaza.

Central Tokyo, by contrast, empties out as residents leave, so city roads are not necessarily busier than usual. If you are staying in Tokyo, the impact is small.

Heading straight out from the airport: choosing your time

On a normal day Haneda to Hakone takes about 90–120 minutes and Narita about 150–180 minutes (see our Tokyo to Hakone transport guide and Haneda to Kawaguchiko guide for normal days); at the outbound holiday peak it takes noticeably longer. A few options:

• If you can choose your flight, avoid landing between morning and midday on the peak outbound day.
• If your arrival lands right on the peak, spend the first night in Tokyo and set off the next morning.
• The return peak comes at the end of the holiday, so try not to schedule your trip back to Tokyo or to the airport for the very last day.

From Haneda to Hakone, an Alphard is ¥50,000 and a Hiace ¥55,000, with tolls and parking included. Agree the actual departure time with our team, based on that year's congestion forecast.

For why to book early in busy periods, see booking a Japan airport transfer in peak season. Once your holiday flights are confirmed, submit your trip on the booking page, with your destination and preferred departure time.