Is the US Market Open on Japanese Holidays?

No, the US market does not close for Japanese holidays. The NYSE and Nasdaq keep their own calendar, about ten full closures a year plus a handful of 1:00 p.m. early closes, and Coming of Age Day or the Golden Week block has no standing in it. Orders sent from Japan route and fill on those dates exactly as they do on any other session.

What pauses sits downstream of the trade. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is dark, domestic banks are closed, and yen funding along with FX conversion waits for the next Tokyo business day. The more useful half of the question is the reverse one, so this page runs both calendars against each other: the dates Tokyo is shut while New York trades, and the dates New York is shut while Tokyo trades.

Which Japanese holidays leave the US market open?

Japan observes sixteen national holidays, among the most of any major market, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange adds a year-end closure running December 31 through January 3. Exactly one of them, January 1, lines up with a US closure. The rest are ordinary trading days in New York:

• New Year holidays, January 1 through January 3, with the exchange also closed December 31
• Coming of Age Day, the second Monday of January
• National Foundation Day, February 11
• The Emperor's Birthday, February 23
• Vernal Equinox Day, on or about March 20
• Showa Day, April 29
• Constitution Memorial Day, May 3
• Greenery Day, May 4
• Children's Day, May 5
• Marine Day, the third Monday of July
• Mountain Day, August 11
• Respect for the Aged Day, the third Monday of September
• Autumnal Equinox Day, on or about September 23
• Sports Day, the second Monday of October
• Culture Day, November 3
• Labour Thanksgiving Day, November 23

The panel below takes the 2026 Tokyo closures that landed on a weekday, skips the shared January 1 holiday, and reads what the US tape did on each of those dates. SPY, the largest exchange traded fund tracking the S&P 500, stands in for the broad US session.

SELECT
    toString(date)                                           AS session_date,
    formatDateTime(date, '%a %b %e')                         AS session_label,
    transform(
        toString(date),
        ['2026-01-02','2026-01-12','2026-02-11','2026-02-23','2026-03-20',
         '2026-04-29','2026-05-04','2026-05-05','2026-05-06','2026-07-20',
         '2026-08-11','2026-09-21','2026-09-23'],
        ['New Year exchange closure','Coming of Age Day','National Foundation Day',
         'Emperor’s Birthday','Vernal Equinox Day','Showa Day','Greenery Day',
         'Children’s Day','Substitute holiday (Constitution Memorial Day)','Marine Day',
         'Mountain Day','Respect for the Aged Day','Autumnal Equinox Day'],
        'Tokyo closure'
    )                                                        AS tokyo_closure,
    round(toFloat64(volume) / 1e6, 1)                        AS spy_volume_millions,
    round((toFloat64(close) / toFloat64(open) - 1) * 100, 2)  AS spy_move_pct
FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
  AND date IN (
      '2026-01-02','2026-01-12','2026-02-11','2026-02-23','2026-03-20',
      '2026-04-29','2026-05-04','2026-05-05','2026-05-06','2026-07-20',
      '2026-08-11','2026-09-21','2026-09-23'
  )
ORDER BY date

Every one of the 13 Tokyo closures in that list was a full US session. On Fri Jan 2, with Tokyo still in its New Year shutdown, SPY alone turned over 89.4 million shares; on Wed Sep 23 it turned over 54.9 million. Nothing in the volume or the open-to-close column sets these days apart from the sessions around them, which is the point: the US tape has no field for the Japanese calendar.

What can a Japan based holder do on a Tokyo holiday?

The US side of the trade is untouched. A market order sent from Tokyo at 23:30 JST meets the same book as one sent from Chicago, and the US clearing leg keeps to the standard T+1 timetable, one US business day after the trade. Our T plus 1 stock settlement guide walks that clock step by step.

The Japanese leg is the part that waits. A domestic broker's yen cash settlement, the reference conversion rate most Japanese banks publish each business morning, and an outgoing bank transfer all sit on Tokyo business days. Four practical consequences on a Tokyo holiday:

1. A US order can be placed, filled and confirmed in the account.
2. The position is marked in dollars, while the yen valuation may not refresh until Tokyo reopens.
3. A yen to dollar conversion requested that day is dated to the next Tokyo business day.
4. A withdrawal or a domestic transfer does not leave until the banks reopen.

Margin is the sharp edge of this gap. If a US price move during a Tokyo closure leaves an account short of collateral, the cash to cure it can be stuck on the wrong side of a closed banking day.

Golden Week is the longest such stretch. In 2026 the Tokyo block covered May 4 through May 6, with Constitution Memorial Day falling on the Sunday and its observance moving forward. Those dark days sat inside an unbroken run of US sessions.

SELECT
    toString(date)                   AS session_date,
    formatDateTime(date, '%a %b %e') AS session_label,
    if(date IN ('2026-05-04', '2026-05-05', '2026-05-06'),
       'Tokyo closed',
       'Tokyo open')                 AS tokyo_status,
    round(toFloat64(close), 2)       AS spy_close
FROM global_markets.stocks_daily_aggs
WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
  AND date >= '2026-04-27'
  AND date <= '2026-05-08'
ORDER BY date

The panel holds 10 consecutive US sessions across that window. SPY closed at $715.17 on Mon Apr 27 and at $737.62 on Fri May 8, with three of the sessions in between falling on Tokyo holidays. A Japan based holder watched the mark on their position change across those days with the domestic funding and settlement machinery shut.

When is Tokyo open and the US market closed?

This is the direction that catches people out. The TSE trades on every US holiday apart from the one the two markets share. On Thanksgiving Thursday, and on Independence Day whenever it is observed on a weekday, Tokyo runs a normal session, 9:00 to 15:30 JST with a midday break, while the US tape prints nothing at all. A Japanese investor holding US names gets a full domestic business day with no US market inside it: no fills, no fresh marks, and the position pinned to the previous close.

SELECT
    toString(date)                   AS holiday_date,
    formatDateTime(date, '%a %b %e') AS closure_label,
    any(name)                        AS holiday,
    any(status)                      AS day_status,
    any(if(status = 'early-close',
           formatDateTime(toTimeZone(close, 'America/New_York'), '%I:%i %p'),
           'no trading'))            AS us_session_ends,
    dateDiff('day', today(), date)   AS days_away
FROM global_markets.stocks_market_holidays
WHERE date >= today()
GROUP BY date
ORDER BY date

The soonest US closure ahead is Thanksgiving on Thu Nov 26, 57 days out, and the forward calendar carries 12 dated closures in all. Each row is tagged either a full closure, meaning no trading at any point, or an early close, meaning a shortened session. Tokyo trades through every one of them except the shared January 1 date.

What does a US early close look like from Tokyo?

Two half days recur: the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve when it lands on a weekday. July 3 joins them in some years. On those dates regular US trading ends at 1:00 p.m. ET rather than 4:00 p.m., three and a half hours instead of six and a half. Counting one-minute bars is the cleanest way to see the difference: a full session prints 390 of them, a 1:00 p.m. close prints 210, and a full closure prints none.

SELECT
    toString(cal.day)                    AS session_date,
    formatDateTime(cal.day, '%a %b %e')  AS session_label,
    toUInt32(ifNull(t.bars, 0))          AS regular_session_bars
FROM
(
    SELECT toDate('2025-11-21') + arrayJoin(range(11)) AS day
) AS cal
LEFT JOIN
(
    SELECT
        toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS d,
        count()                                              AS bars
    FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
    WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
      AND window_start >= toDateTime('2025-11-21 00:00:00')
      AND window_start <  toDateTime('2025-12-03 00:00:00')
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) >= 570
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) < 960
    GROUP BY d
) AS t ON t.d = cal.day
WHERE toDayOfWeek(cal.day) BETWEEN 1 AND 5
ORDER BY cal.day

All three shapes show up in a single week. Fri Nov 21 printed 390 regular-session bars, a normal day. Thu Nov 27 printed 0, the full holiday closure. Fri Nov 28 printed 211, the half day. For a viewer in Japan during US standard time, a 1:00 p.m. ET close falls at 3:00 a.m. JST the next morning, so the shortened session passes entirely while Tokyo sleeps. Any volume or closing-price calculation that assumes a 4:00 p.m. finish on one of these days overstates the session.

Why do the Japanese holiday dates move?

The dates shift for more than one reason. Several holidays are pinned to a weekday rather than a calendar date under the Happy Monday system, which is why Coming of Age Day is the second Monday of January and Marine Day the third Monday of July. Others move under the substitute holiday rule, 振替休日 (furikae kyujitsu): a national holiday falling on a Sunday is observed on the following Monday, and if that Monday is itself a holiday the closure slides to the next non-holiday day. Golden Week 2026 is a clean illustration. Constitution Memorial Day fell on Sunday May 3, May 4 and May 5 were already holidays, and the substitute day came to rest on Wednesday May 6. The two equinox holidays move independently again: their dates come from an astronomical calculation published the previous February, so late March and late September are typical rather than fixed.

Memorising them is wasted effort. The exchange publishes its own calendar a year ahead at JPX, and the US half of the pair lives in our stock market holidays and early closes calendar alongside the single-day check in is the stock market open today. For the Japanese derivatives dates these closures reshape, see SQ day in Japan; for how the sessions line up across zones, see US stock market hours around the world.

FAQ

Is the US stock market closed on Japanese holidays?

No. The NYSE and Nasdaq observe only their own holiday calendar. The single overlap is January 1, which both markets take off. Golden Week and the other Japanese national holidays are full US trading sessions.

Can I trade US stocks from Japan during Golden Week?

The US market is open and orders route normally on those dates. The Japanese side is what stalls: yen conversion and domestic cash settlement are dated forward to the next Tokyo business day.

Is the Tokyo Stock Exchange open on Thanksgiving?

Yes. Tokyo holds a normal session on US Thanksgiving and on the shortened Friday that follows it. A Japan based holder of US stocks gets a domestic business day with no US tape running inside it.

Why do Japanese holiday dates change every year?

Some are pinned to a weekday instead of a date, such as the second Monday of January for Coming of Age Day. Others shift under the substitute holiday rule, 振替休日, which pushes a Sunday holiday to the following Monday or to the next non-holiday day after that.

Does a Japanese holiday delay US stock settlement?

No. The US clearing leg counts US business days on a T+1 timetable. A Tokyo closure touches the domestic legs, the yen funding and the currency conversion, and leaves the US settlement clock alone.

Every panel here carries the exact SQL beneath it, so expand one to see how each count was made. To check a single date, or to lay two calendars against each other for a window of your own, ask it in plain English on the Strasmore terminal.