Time Difference Between Sydney and Tokyo
Tokyo is 1h behind Sydney in standard time, and 2h behind while Sydney is on daylight saving time.
Sydney clocks move forward on the first Sunday of October and back on the first Sunday of April. Tokyo keeps the same clock all year. The figures above cover each part of the year. They do not come from the offset on the day the site was built. The live clocks use the current time.
Working Hours Overlap
For each hour of Sydney's working day (9:00-18:00), here is the corresponding local time in Tokyo. Rows highlighted green fall within standard working hours (9:00-18:00) in both cities. Each block is one part of the year, so the table does not change with the day this page was built.
1h behind (standard time)
| Sydney | Tokyo | Both working hours? |
|---|---|---|
| 9 AM | 8 AM | No |
| 10 AM | 9 AM | Yes |
| 11 AM | 10 AM | Yes |
| 12 PM | 11 AM | Yes |
| 1 PM | 12 PM | Yes |
| 2 PM | 1 PM | Yes |
| 3 PM | 2 PM | Yes |
| 4 PM | 3 PM | Yes |
| 5 PM | 4 PM | Yes |
| 6 PM | 5 PM | No |
2h behind (daylight saving time in Sydney, while Tokyo is on standard time)
| Sydney | Tokyo | Both working hours? |
|---|---|---|
| 9 AM | 7 AM | No |
| 10 AM | 8 AM | No |
| 11 AM | 9 AM | Yes |
| 12 PM | 10 AM | Yes |
| 1 PM | 11 AM | Yes |
| 2 PM | 12 PM | Yes |
| 3 PM | 1 PM | Yes |
| 4 PM | 2 PM | Yes |
| 5 PM | 3 PM | Yes |
| 6 PM | 4 PM | No |
Best Time to Meet
1h behind (standard time)
- 10 AM-6 PM in Sydney (9 AM-5 PM in Tokyo) works for both sides. It falls within 9 AM-6 PM in both time zones.
2h behind (daylight saving time in Sydney, while Tokyo is on standard time)
- 11 AM-6 PM in Sydney (9 AM-4 PM in Tokyo) works for both sides. It falls within 9 AM-6 PM in both time zones.
How the Difference Changes
Only Sydney changes its clocks, so the gap is not one number. The rules are above. The dates for the year you are reading this page load below.
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Working Across Sydney and Tokyo
The flight is about ten hours. The clock change is one hour or two. Travelers feel cheated, and they should aim their complaint at the seat, not at the timezone. Sydney is two hours ahead of Tokyo while Sydney is on daylight time, from the first Sunday of October until the first Sunday of April, and one hour ahead the rest of the year, from the first Sunday of April until the first Sunday of October. Tokyo does not change. 9 AM in Tokyo is 11 AM in Sydney in the long daylight stretch and 10 AM otherwise. The whole workday overlaps in both settings.
A 6 PM Tokyo call is 8 PM in Sydney during daylight time and 7 PM on standard time. That is the edge to avoid. Everything earlier in the Tokyo day is a normal Sydney hour. Because only Sydney moves, a recurring invite anchored in Tokyo slides by an hour for Sydney on the first Sunday of April and the first Sunday of October, and a room that was punctual in March is an hour off in April. The holidays diverge the other way. Japan's late April and early May cluster, and the mid-August break, fall in ordinary Sydney weeks. Sydney's January leave falls in a normal Tokyo work month, aside from the first few days of the year.
Ten hours in the air for a one-hour change means you are tired and your clock is almost right, which is a confusing combination. People go to bed at 8 PM local because the flight was exhausting, wake at 3 AM, and blame the zone. Stay up to a normal local bedtime if you can. The next day is a normal day. This is not the Sydney to New York problem, where the date itself changes under you. A long flight and a short clock are different problems, and this route is the second one.
Guides for this corridor
- Scheduling with Sydney from the US, the UK, or Singapore
Sydney's clock moves in the opposite season, so the gap with New York, San Francisco, London, and Singapore has more than two settings. Which hour survives, and why January is a bad month to pretend otherwise.
Sydney
Sydney uses the Australia/Sydney time zone. Standard time is UTC+10, and daylight saving time is UTC+11.
Tokyo
Tokyo uses the Asia/Tokyo time zone, at UTC+9 all year. This zone does not observe daylight saving time.