Oshogatsu (お正月) — Japanese New Year — is the most important holiday of the year in Japan. Unlike the Western New Year’s Eve focus on parties, Japanese New Year is a quiet, family-centered, spiritually significant three-day observance full of specific rituals, foods, and activities that together form the most complete expression of Japanese cultural values around renewal and continuity.
New Year’s Eve: Omisoka
December 31 (omisoka) is spent cleaning the home (osoji — the year-end deep clean that ensures the year begins in purity), cooking the New Year foods, and watching NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen — a televised song competition dividing Japan’s top musical artists into “red” (women) and “white” (men) teams that has been broadcast every New Year’s Eve since 1951.
At midnight, Buddhist temples across Japan ring their bells 108 times (joya no kane) — once for each of the 108 worldly desires in Buddhist teaching, striking each one away as the year ends. NHK broadcasts the bell-ringing from major temples simultaneously. Many people visit a temple to hear the bell in person and make their first prayers of the year just after midnight.
Osechi Ryori: New Year Cuisine
Osechi ryori is the elaborate three-tiered lacquer box (jubako) of ceremonial foods prepared for New Year. Traditionally prepared by families in the days before New Year (allowing a rest from cooking during the holiday), each dish carries symbolic meaning:
- Kazunoko (herring roe): many children and family prosperity
- Kuromame (black soybeans, sweet): health and hard work
- Datemaki (sweet rolled omelet): scholarship and good records
- Kohaku kamaboko (red and white fish cake): auspicious colors
- Ebi (shrimp, grilled): long life (bent posture of the elderly)
- Tazukuri (candied sardines): bountiful harvest
Modern families often purchase osechi from department stores, hotels, or specialty caterers — elaborate osechi boxes are pre-ordered months in advance. The quality and presentation of the osechi is a matter of family pride.
Hatsumode: First Shrine Visit
The first shrine or temple visit of the New Year (hatsumode) is made by over 100 million Japanese people during the first three days of January — roughly 80% of the population. Major shrines like Meiji Jingu in Tokyo, Naritasan Shinshoji Temple in Chiba, and Fushimi Inari in Kyoto attract millions of visitors during these three days. Queuing for over an hour to reach the main hall is common and accepted.
At hatsumode, visitors make offerings, pray for health and good fortune in the coming year, purchase omamori (protective amulets) and ema (wooden wish plaques), and receive the first omikuji (fortune paper) of the year. Returning the previous year’s amulets to the shrine for ritual disposal is also standard practice.
New Year Cards and Other Traditions
Sending nengajo (New Year’s postcards) to friends, family, and business associates is a tradition that, while declining among younger generations, remains widely practiced. Cards are designed and mailed in December with a special post office date system that holds them for delivery on January 1. Children receive otoshidama — small envelopes of cash from adult relatives — a tradition they eagerly anticipate.