The Three Weeks When Nothing Ships in Japan

Three times a year the Japanese supply chain thins out, and once a year it stops almost completely. Over New Year the factories close, and so do the forwarders, the customs brokers, the trucking companies that would move your pallet to the port, and the banks. Golden Week and Obon are less absolute, and the offices around you may well be open, but the plants still close and the people you need are still away. Then everyone reopens together with a backlog.

If you are planning a packing run in Japan from overseas, these three windows will do more damage to your schedule than any supplier problem. They are also completely predictable, which means the only real mistake is not knowing about them.

The three windows

Period	Roughly when	What it is
New Year	Late December into the first week of January	The longest & the most complete stop of the year
Golden Week	Late April into the first week of May	A run of public holidays close together
Obon	Around the middle of August	One public holiday, then plants close anyway

New Year

This is the big one. Japanese companies typically close somewhere around the end of December and reopen in the first working week of January. The exact dates move with the weekends and differ by company, and plenty of plants extend the break at one end or the other.

What makes New Year different from an ordinary holiday is that it is total. There is no skeleton crew taking deliveries, and the weeks either side are compressed too: everyone is trying to finish before the break and everyone is clearing a backlog after it. The practical effect is closer to three weeks of disruption than the number of days on the calendar.

Golden Week

A cluster of public holidays in late April and early May. Depending on how they fall, many companies take the whole stretch, and others work the gaps. It is less absolute than New Year, so ask, and do not assume either way. What you should assume is that the week is not a normal production week.

Obon

Mid August, and this is the one a calendar will mislead you about. There is a public holiday in there, Mountain Day on 11 August, and that single day is all a list of Japanese public holidays will show you. Obon itself, roughly the thirteenth to the sixteenth, is not a public holiday at all.

Most food plants close through it anyway, because their staff travel to their family homes. So the calendar offers you one day off and the plant is shut for most of the week. An August run is worth scheduling early for that reason alone.

The flip side is worth knowing too. Because Obon is not a statutory holiday, the offices around the plant keep different hours from the plant itself. Your bank, your broker and your forwarder may all be working. Do not assume they are closed, and do not assume they are fully staffed either. Ask each one for its own dates.

Why this hits a four week lead time so hard

Our own lead time is three to four weeks from the day the order is confirmed and your material has arrived in Kyoto. Drop a shutdown into the middle of that window and it does not pause for the holiday, it extends past it, because the working week it was scheduled into no longer exists.

Order confirmed	Normal finish	With a one week shutdown in the window
Early February	Early March	No change
Early December	Early January	Middle of January at best
Middle of April	Middle of May	Late May
Late July	Late August	Early September

Then add the part people forget. The finished cartons still have to get out of Japan. Over New Year your forwarder, the port and the customs broker are closed too, so a shipment that would normally leave three days after the run finishes can sit well past the holiday itself. Through Golden Week and Obon they are largely open but thinly staffed, which is slower going, and a pallet still waits.

The worst case is material arriving just before a break

The genuinely expensive mistake is to ship your material so that it lands in Japan a few days before a shutdown. Over New Year it may not clear at all, because the broker is closed. Through the other two breaks it usually clears and then simply waits, because nothing can be weighed into a bag until the line reopens. Either way the run moves to the other side of the holiday.

If your material is going to arrive close to one of these windows, it is almost always better to aim for the first week after the break than the last week before it. The dates are the same either way and the risk is not.

Why the scheduled date matters more than the calendar

Filling runs on a date we schedule for you, so that date rather than the calendar sets your plan. A shutdown week takes working days out of the month it falls in, so the same three to four week job needs more calendar around it than it would in an ordinary month.

For a run that has to be finished before New Year in particular, the conversation needs to start much earlier than you would think necessary for a three to four week job. Ask about December in October, not in December.

Working one backwards

Say you want finished stock in your own warehouse in the middle of March, shipping by sea. Work from the end.

• Sea freight out of Japan, plus clearance at your end: allow for it first, because it is the leg you control least.
• Hand over of finished cartons in Kyoto: so the run has to finish in the first half of February.
• Three to four weeks of filling: so the order is confirmed in the middle of January, with your material already here.
• Material arriving in Kyoto: it has to clear Japanese customs before that, and the New Year close sits directly in the way, so aim it at the second week of January, which puts it clear of the New Year close.

Run the same arithmetic for a mid September launch and it is comfortable, because nothing in the chain crosses a shutdown. That is the whole point of doing it on paper first: the same four week lead time is easy in one quarter and tight in another, and the difference is nothing to do with how busy anyone is.

What to ask for, in writing

Rather than looking up Japanese public holidays and hoping, ask your supplier for four dates. Having them in an email removes the guesswork.

• The closure dates for the specific break your project runs into, for this year.
• The last date they can receive your material before the break.
• The last date they can dispatch finished goods before the break.
• The first working day after the break, and what the backlog looks like in that first week.

That last question is the one nobody asks and the one that tells you the most. Reopening on the first working day of January does not mean your pallet moves that day.

A planning method that works

Count backwards from the date you need stock on sale, and add a shutdown to the plan as a whole block of weeks.

• Start from the date you need stock on sale in your market.
• Subtract the sea or air leg out of Japan, plus customs clearance at your end.
• Subtract three to four weeks for the packing run itself.
• Subtract the time for your material to reach Kyoto and clear into Japan, which is your responsibility as importer of record. Sending your material to a Japanese packer covers that leg.
• Now look at the dates you have landed on. If any of them fall in one of the three windows, move the whole plan earlier by a clear margin, not by the number of holiday days.

Do this once, properly, at the start. The alternative is discovering in the second week of December that the answer is February.

What this is not

It is not a reason to avoid packing in Japan. Three predictable windows a year is easier to manage than an unpredictable supplier, and a shutdown you can see coming is easier to plan around than a supplier who misses dates without warning. It is simply a calendar fact that has to be in your plan from the beginning, because it cannot be negotiated away later.

If you want our dates for the break your project runs into, ask. We would rather tell you in October than explain in December. The lead time, minimums and rate card are on the contract packing page.

Questions we get asked

Which weeks actually close?

New Year is the complete one: companies close around the end of December and reopen in the first working week of January. The early May holidays and mid August close most food plants, though they are less absolute.

Is Obon a public holiday?

No. Mountain Day on 11 August is a public holiday and it is the only part a calendar will show you. Obon itself, roughly the thirteenth to the sixteenth, is not, and yet most food plants close through it anyway.

Do the banks and customs brokers close too?

Over New Year, yes, along with the plants. Through Golden Week and Obon they are largely open but thinly staffed. Ask your own bank and your own broker for their dates instead of assuming the factory calendar applies to them.

When should I ship material if a break is close?

Aim for the first week after the break instead of the last week before it. The finished dates work out about the same and the risk does not.

How far ahead should I ask about a December run?

October. For a run that has to finish before New Year, the conversation needs to start much earlier than a three to four week lead time suggests.

Related reading

• How Japanese suppliers quote and get paid
• Sending your material to a Japanese packer
• Yuzu, where the harvest sets your window
• What a 500 bag minimum really means