While planning a trip to a Japanese theme park, many people ask me which day is likely to be the least crowded.
Most visitors to Japan are, of course, aware that weekdays are going to be less crowded than than weekends and national holidays but…
Did you know that there are crowd prediction calendars that can help you know ahead of time which Japanese theme parks are likely to be busy and on which day?
I will walk you through how to read these Japanese crowd prediction calendars here.
This blog post contains some affiliate links. This means that I will receive a small commission if you book a hotel or make a purchase using one of my links – at no additional charge to you.
TOKYO DISNEYLAND & TOKYO DISNEYSEA CROWD PREDICTION CALENDARS
There is a Japanese website that helps predicts just how busy the park will be on a particular day (I’m not exactly sure of the science involved but I assume it is connected to pre-booked tickets, the Japanese school calendar and Disney Hotel reservations.) This is the Plala Site which gives you an idea of crowd predictions :
Confusing, right?
Let me break it down and make it easier to read.
This is the key for what all of the colours refer to:
Then above that is the calendar. In Japanese, the months of the year start with the numerical order of the month + the kanji character for “moon” that looks like this “月”. So… January is written as 1月 and February is 2月…and so on and so forth.
The example below is 4月 …so … it is for April.
So choose which park : Disneyland or DisneySea. Then look at the days of the month and match the colour with the day of the month you are thinking of visiting.
Obviously, the white, blue or green are the ideal days to visit and black is the least ideal.
Extra tip: Although I wouldn’t recommend going to Disneyland in a blizzard or anything like that but we have found that a little bit of rain is actually a good thing as it can keep other people away so that’s more space in lines for you!
Summer is actually harder than Winter as the Japanese Summer is so hot and muggy.
Please note that “not busy” in Japan can look a lot busier than you may be used to in theme parks overseas.
See here for my tips on making the most of a day at Tokyo Disneyland.
See here for my tips on making the most of a day at Tokyo Disneysea.
This blog post contains some affiliate links. This means that I will receive a small commission if you book a hotel or make a purchase using one of my links – at no additional charge to you.
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN CROWD PREDICTION CALENDAR
THE NEW DONKEY KONG COUNTRY SECTION: Opened Dec 11.
It will be sooooo busy from Dec – June 2025 so please please please please get all the express passes you can (need to be purchased ahead of time.) With kids, I wouldn’t make promises that you will get to see this new land BUT you may get to see more of the others as the crowds will be focused on this section (great news for Super Nintendo World and Harry Potter fans!) I’ve written more about Donkey Kong Country here.
FUJI Q HIGHLAND
LEGOLAND JAPAN
