Festivals, exhibitions, pop-ups, and seasonal happenings across all nine regions.
The Tsuyama Gongo Festival is a lively summer event in Tsuyama City featuring kappa-themed dances along Yakko-dori Street and one of Okayama's largest fireworks displays.
1–2 Aug 2027Okayama · ChugokuThe Nagano Binzuru Dance Festival draws over 10,000 participants in coordinated yukata processions through closed-off city streets in a fully participatory summer celebration.
2 Aug 2027Nagano · ChubuThe Summer Grand Festival honours Onominato Shrine's deities with Kanazawa's largest mikoshi procession, traditional dances, and rituals from the 1600s.
30 Jul – 2 Aug 2027Ishikawa · ChubuMajor summer dance festival originating from legend about a demon's defeat, featuring traditional Sansa Odori dance and powerful taiko performances.
1–4 Aug 2027Iwate · TohokuHachinohe Sansha Taisai combines traditional shrine processions with elaborately decorated floats and is recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
31 Jul – 4 Aug 2027Aomori · TohokuEvery 4–5 August, ten neighbourhoods of Yokaichiba send mikoshi through the streets while crowds throw water over them. A Chiba festival nearly 500 years old.
4–5 Aug 2027Chiba · KantoA summer harvest festival features towering bamboo poles adorned with paper lanterns, paraded through streets with traditional music and daytime balancing performances.
3–6 Aug 2027Akita · TohokuThe Hirosaki Neputa Festival features giant illuminated floats up to 10 meters tall, paraded nightly through the city with taiko drums and traditional chanting.
1–7 Aug 2027Aomori · TohokuThe Yamagata Hanagasa Festival is a major August event where over 10,000 dancers parade nightly with flower-decorated hanagasa hats to taiko drums and folk song.
5–7 Aug 2027Yamagata · TohokuAomori's most iconic summer festival features glowing nebuta floats and energetic haneto dancers who leap through illuminated parades and water processions.
2–7 Aug 2027Aomori · TohokuThe Goshogawara Tachineputa Festival is an Aomori summer festival famous for its illuminated floats, some up to 23 metres tall, paraded nightly to taiko drums and flutes.
4–8 Aug 2027Aomori · TohokuA festival celebrating the legend of star-crossed lovers transforms the city with colorful bamboo displays, streamers, and a traditional parade.
1–8 Aug 2027Toyama · ChubuHeld 6–8 August, the Sendai Tanabata Festival fills the city with vast colourful paper streamers and kusudama ornaments, rooted in the Tanabata legend.
6–8 Aug 2027Miyagi · TohokuA summer festival on Sado Island blending the Tanabata star festival with the ceremonial opening of Ryotsu Port, featuring parades, folk dance, and a fireworks finale.
7–8 Aug 2027Niigata · ChubuThe Kiryu Yagibushi Festival is a lively summer event held each August in Kiryu City, centred on Yagibushi folk song and dance, with street parades, live music, and cultural programmes.
7–9 Aug 2027Gunma · KantoOne of western Tokyo's biggest summer festivals, where Japan's Tanabata star festival meets American base-town culture in a street of dazzling decorations.
7–9 Aug 2027Tokyo · KantoUozu's biggest summer event, the Jantokoi Uozu Festival brings UNESCO-listed Tatemon floats, folk dance, seaside fireworks, and jazz.
7–9 Aug 2027Toyama · ChubuEvery August, Kochi erupts into dance: thousands of performers surging through the streets with clacking naruko, in a carnival that reinvents itself year after year.
9–12 Aug 2027Kochi · Shikoku
