Forecast of Cherry Blossoms season in Japan
Time to start planning your trip to Japan if one of your new year resolutions is to catch the Sakura season (Cherry Blossoms) this year.
According to Japan Meteorological Corporation (JMC), there are two dates to look out for when it comes to cherry blossoms in Japan – the flowering date (kaika) and full bloom date (mankai).
March to May 2020
According to JMC, the earliest bloom will begin in Fukuoka from 21 March onwards with the latest in Sapporo region in early May.
Here’s the forecast map showing the areas.
If you are looking for more exact dates so you can get your travel itinerary planned out, JMC also has an app called Sakura Navi on App Store here and Google Play here when they will send out new forecasts and updates in the following months.
The apps are not free though and cost US$2.99 on the App Store and US$3.99 on Google Play.
Screengrab of the Sakura Navi app
For a more detailed forecast of the major cities, you can refer to the table below.
| Prefecture | Location | Forecasted flowering date | Flowering deviation (days) | Forecasted full bloom date | Full bloom deviation (days) | Flowering date in average year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hokkaido | Sapporo | 5/1 | -2 | 5/5 | -2 | 5/3 |
| Aomori | Aomori | 4/23 | -1 | 4/27 | -2 | 4/24 |
| Miyagi | Sendai | 4/5 | -6 | 4/11 | -5 | 4/11 |
| Tokyo | Tokyo | 3/18 | -8 | 3/26 | -8 | 3/26 |
| Ishikawa | Kanazawa | 3/31 | -4 | 4/6 | -4 | 4/4 |
| Nagano | Nagano | 4/7 | -6 | 4/13 | -4 | 4/13 |
| Aichi | Nagoya | 3/20 | -6 | 3/30 | -4 | 3/26 |
| Kyoto | Kyoto | 3/23 | -5 | 4/1 | -4 | 3/28 |
| Osaka | Osaka | 3/25 | -3 | 4/2 | -3 | 3/28 |
| Wakayama | Wakayama | 3/25 | -1 | 4/2 | -2 | 3/26 |
| Hiroshima | Hiroshima | 3/22 | -5 | 4/1 | -3 | 3/27 |
| Kochi | Kochi | 3/20 | -2 | 3/27 | -3 | 3/22 |
| Fukuoka | Fukuoka | 3/21 | -2 | 3/31 | -1 | 3/23 |
| Kagoshima | Kagoshima | 3/27 | 1 | 4/7 | 3 | 3/26 |
*Above dates forecasted on 23 January 2020. The dates could change again in the following months.
Cherry Blossoms Viewing Areas
Besides finding out the dates, interested travellers can also refer to this page (also created by JMC) to find out the actual viewing locations of the cherry blossoms in each prefecture.
Here’s an example of the map showing the locations in Kyoto along with venues listed below it.
It even tells you the percentage of cherry blossoms that are budding, flowering or in full bloom at the present moment.
So useful.
Source: https://n-kishou.com/corp/news-contents/sakura/?lang=en
