When do cherry blossoms bloom in Japan?
Most cherry blossom in Japan bloom in March, April, or May. Over the years, more and more flowers are blooming earlier in the spring season. For instance, in 2021, 78% of the cherry blossoms observed first bloomed in March. This is a stark contrast from 1953, where only 30% of the cherry blossoms first bloomed in March. So if you want to catch the cherry blossoms as they are blooming, you may have to plan an earlier trip.
How long does it take for the flowers to fully bloom?
How long to they stay in full bloom?
On average, it takes around a week for the cherry blossoms to go from first bloom to full bloom. Once reaching full bloom, the cherry blossoms are expected to stay in full bloom for about 1 to 2 weeks before the flowers start falling from the trees. So be sure to plan for a March trip if you are visiting Southern Japan, an early April trip if you plan to visit central Japan, and a mid-April trip if you plan to visit Northern Japan.
Stay updated with blooming date forecasts released by the Japan Meteorological Agency to figure out when is the best time to visit!
Which countries visit Japan more during the blooming season compared to the non-blooming season?
Below is a plot featuring the top 15 countries from which Japan receives the most visitors (from Japan tourism data from 1990 - 2022). The lines indicate the average percentages in visitors to Japan between non-blooming season and blooming season. Since the blooming season accounts for only 3 months out of the year, and the non-blooming the other 9, the average visitors for each category are scaled down by 1/3 and 1/9, respectively. Then, a percentage is calculated to account for the difference in populations between these countries to illustrate the difference in travel tendencies for visitors to Japan from these countries.
We see that the top two countries most likely to send visitors to Japan during the blooming season are Thailand and the
Philippines. Conversely, the two countries most likely to send visitors during the non-blooming season are Hong Kong and South Korea.
Cherry blossoms, or sakura, have always been in a significant position in Japanese culture, which symbolizes birth and death, beauty and violence.
In order to better understand the meaning and significance of the experience of cherry blossom viewing (hanami) in Japanese culture, we collected a tremendous amount of reviews from 
, and found the most frequently used vocabulary, which we believe indicates what they care about the most when it comes to hanami. Here are some of our findings.
Attention to Location/Environment
From the list of the most frequently used words, we can see a lot of words that are used to specify the location, such as “名所 (famous place)”, “寺 (shrine/temple)”, “公園 (park)”, and the names of cities. It’s not hard to infer that the location where the activity takes place is the core of the experience. Even if it means they have to squeeze in with all the other hanami goers in an outrageously crowded place, they would still value the experience of hanami at a popular spot.
Urban over Rural
Atrificial over Natural
Inspired by the finding, we explored a little further into the locations. We found that, out of the 100 most popular hanami spots on , the spots in urban settings significantly outnumbered those in rural settings, while those in controlled/artificial environments, such as parks, shrines, and gardens, also outnumbered those in natural settings.
Peace of Mind Overcomes Noise of Crowds
Even though most of the hanimi goers experience hanami in a crowded spot located in major urban areas such as Kanto and Kinki, they are still able to enjoy (楽しむ) the beauty (綺麗) of sakura and find their peace of mind (or 静か, silence) as written in one of the reviews, “The hustle and bustle of the city is forgotten.”（“都会の喧騒を忘れてまったり。”）
The hustle and bustle of the city is forgotten.