Festivals, exhibitions, pop-ups, and seasonal happenings across all nine regions.
The 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 2026Aomori · TohokuA festival celebrating the legend of star-crossed lovers transforms the city with colorful bamboo displays, streamers, and a traditional parade.
1–8 Aug 2026Toyama · 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 2026Miyagi · 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 2026Niigata · 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 2026Gunma · KantoThe Yamashiro Daidengaku Festival revives the ancient dengaku dance form rooted in Shintoism, through performances by local talents and renowned actors in period costumes.
8–9 Aug 2026Ishikawa · ChubuOne 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 2026Tokyo · KantoUozu's biggest summer event, the Jantokoi Uozu Festival brings UNESCO-listed Tatemon floats, folk dance, seaside fireworks, and jazz.
7–9 Aug 2026Toyama · ChubuA summer fireworks festival in the coastal town of Mikuni, Fukui, where hanabi are launched over the sea, alongside food stalls, festival games, and traditional performances.
11 Aug 2026Fukui · 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 2026Kochi · ShikokuA summer festival where 4,000 decorated goldfish lanterns cast a spellbinding glow over the town, alongside a spirited Goldfish Nebuta procession.
13 Aug 2026Yamaguchi · ChugokuA major August fireworks festival over the Kanmon Straits, jointly staged by Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki, with over 15,000 fireworks visible from both shores.
13 Aug 2026Yamaguchi · ChugokuA rare Yamaguchi ritual festival said to date back over 1,800 years, with seven nights of dances around the Oni-ishi stone, towering banners, and lantern-topped poles.
7–13 Aug 2026Yamaguchi · ChugokuJapan's most famous traditional dance festival, held annually in Tokushima City, where dancers form groups with distinctive choreography and costumes.
12–15 Aug 2026Tokushima · ShikokuOne of Tokyo's three greatest Shinto festivals, this mid-August celebration centers on water-splashing processions with portable shrines through the city.
15 Aug 2026Tokyo · KantoSunpu Castle Park hosts a lantern event where participants release LED lanterns into the night sky using helium and string, balancing safety with environmental responsibility.
14–15 Aug 2026Shizuoka · ChubuAn exhibition exploring how Buddhist art depicts non-human beings such as serpents and demons alongside buddhas and bodhisattvas across different regions.
11 Jul – 16 Aug 2026Kyoto · KansaiAn Obon evening lantern ceremony held on 16 August at Yakuoin Onsenji Temple in Yamashiro Onsen, where lanterns light the temple's wooded walking paths.
16 Aug 2026Ishikawa · Chubu
