June 29th: Rainy Season Ends in Tokyo Area

Visitors with summer plans in the Kanto Koshin area (which includes Tokyo) will be happy to know that they can count on enjoying many many days of beautiful sunny weather this year. In fact, they may be treated to the longest sunny streak in recorded history.

In an announcement by the Japan Meteorological Agency the rainy season (or tsuyu 梅雨 in Japanese) officially ended today, June 29th, in the Kanto Koshin area, after only 23 days, marking the earliest end ever since the agency began recording. While there is obviously no guarantee that it won't rain after the rainy season has ended, the announcement plays an important role every year for amusement parks, outdoor beer garden halls, sports facilities and others businesses which depend on the sunny weather.

Earliest End Ever

If a June 29th end for the rainy season doesn't sound surprising, consider that the average ending date in the Kanto Koshin area is July 21st, and that this year's end comes 7 days earlier than last year when the rainy season ended on July 6th. Prior to this year, the earliest end was July 1st, 2001.

When is the rainy season in Japan?

In case you were wondering, here's a handy overview of average starting and ending dates for the rainy season in Japan:

• Sapporo and Aomori: June 14th to July 28th
• Sendai: June 12th to July 25th
• Tokyo and Nagoya: June 8th to July 21st
• Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, Osaka, Hiroshima: June 7th to July 21st
• Fukuoka: June 5th to July 19th
• Okinawa: May 9th to June 23rd