Living in Tokyo over New Year: what closes and for how long

If you're living in a Tokyo apartment from late December into January, settle four things before December 29: your last rubbish collections before the break, a refill of any medicine you take regularly, any ward-office or immigration paperwork, and anything you need from a bank counter. Offices, banks, clinics and rubbish collection each stop for a different length of time, and the gap in your rubbish collection can be longer than the holiday itself.

The period is called 年末年始 (nenmatsu-nenshi — the year-end and New Year holidays). Here is how the closures differ:

For 2026–27, those dates mean national offices and Shinjuku's ward office close from Tuesday, December 29, and bank counters from Thursday, December 31. All of them reopen on Monday, January 4.

Find your own last rubbish day

Wards pause collection for only a few days, but each type of rubbish is collected on fixed weekdays. Your last pickup can come well before the holiday, and the first one afterwards can come well after it.

Shinjuku's notice for 2025–26 stopped all collection from December 31 to January 3. Its schedule shows what that meant street by street:

• In areas where recyclables go out on Wednesdays, the last collection was December 24 and the next was January 7, a gap of 14 days.
• Metal, ceramic and glass rubbish collected on the first and third Thursdays went from December 18 to January 15, a gap of 28 days.
• Burnable rubbish in Wednesday and Saturday areas was last collected on December 27, with an extra collection on Sunday, January 4.

Another ward can set different dates. Edogawa's 2025–26 notice kept burnable rubbish collection running until December 31, then paused it from January 1 to 4. Both wards ask residents not to put anything out between the last collection of the year and the first one of the new year.

The notice usually appears in November or December. Shinjuku's page was updated on November 26, 2025, and Edogawa's carried a correction dated November 17. Search for your ward's name with 年末年始 ごみ (gomi — rubbish), then read the row for your area and each type of rubbish. The trash sorting guide explains the categories if you're new to them.

Cardboard and plastic packaging pile up fastest during a long gap, so flatten boxes and rinse containers as you go. If your building has a rubbish room that residents can use at any time, ask the building manager what can stay there during the pause. A shared room can fill up when nothing leaves the building for days.

If your stay ends over New Year

Bulky rubbish, 粗大ごみ (sodai gomi — items too large for the normal bags), needs an application and a collection date. For 2025–26, Shinjuku's phone line for bulky rubbish was closed from December 28 to January 4, and its notice asked people to apply early because year-end bookings get busy. Edogawa's phone line took its last calls on December 27. Both wards also take applications online at any hour, but collection itself stops over the holiday, so apply early enough to get a date before you leave.

In a furnished apartment most of the furniture isn't yours to throw away. The items you bought yourself, such as a desk chair, a rug or a fan heater, are. Book their collection early; the bulky waste guide explains the booking and fees, and the move-out packet guide covers the rest of the departure.

If you registered your address at the ward office, the moving-out notice, 転出届 (tenshutsu todoke — notice that you are leaving the ward or Japan), has its own timing. Shinjuku accepts it from 14 days before you move, and also by post. If you leave between December 29 and January 3, file it before the 29th.

Moving into a new ward works the other way. The moving-in notice, 転入届 (tennyū todoke), can only be filed after you move, within 14 days. If that deadline lands on a ward-office holiday, Article 4-2 of the Local Autonomy Act moves it to the day after the holiday.

Immigration and other paperwork

Ward offices handle residence registration, health insurance and certificates. Shinjuku's main office lists its closed days as weekends, public holidays and December 29 to January 3, so the last day you can visit its counters before the 2026–27 break is Monday, December 28.

Regional immigration offices are national government offices, so the national holidays law applies to them. The Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau takes applications from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, excluding holidays. If the period of stay on your residence card ends in late December or early January, don't leave the application for the last week of the year.

Medical help on the holiday days

Your usual clinic may not open on the holiday days. For those days, each ward arranges 休日診療 (kyūjitsu shinryō — holiday clinics) for sudden illness.

Shinjuku's holiday clinic runs at the Shinjuku City Medical Association's health center on Sundays, public holidays and every day from December 29 to January 3. On those days, a doctor sees general illnesses such as a fever or stomach pain from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and you need to arrive by 9:30 p.m. A children's doctor is there from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with arrivals by 4:30 p.m. The ward asks patients to call 03-3208-2223 before going. It also says the clinic gives only about one day of medicine and that you should see a regular clinic afterwards.

That limit is the reason to refill any regular prescription before December 29. A holiday clinic can treat a sudden fever, but it isn't set up to give you two weeks of your usual medication. If you don't have Japanese health insurance, you'll pay the full cost at any of these clinics; the guide to seeing a doctor without national insurance explains what to expect.

Two phone services stay open through the holidays:

• #7119, the Tokyo Fire Department's emergency consultation line, answers 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Doctors and nurses help you decide whether to go to hospital or call an ambulance. Its online symptom guide is available in English.
• HIMAWARI, Tokyo's medical information service, runs a foreign-language line on 03-5285-8181 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., 365 days a year, in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Spanish. It can tell you which medical institutions can help you in your language and explain how the Japanese system works.

For a fire or a medical emergency, call 119. The apartment emergencies guide covers what to say.

Banks, cash and shops

Bank counters close from December 31 to January 3 under the Banking Act Order, as well as on weekends. If you need a counter for a card problem, an overseas transfer or an account change, go by the last weekday before the 31st, which is Wednesday, December 30, in 2026. ATMs follow each bank's own holiday schedule, so look for your bank's year-end notice if you depend on a particular machine.

Shops set their own New Year hours. Before the 31st, check the days your usual supermarket and pharmacy will open, on the shop's website or by asking at the counter, and plan a few days of meals around that.

When the holidays end, look again at your ward's notice for the first collection of each type of rubbish. In Shinjuku's 2025–26 schedule, some metal and glass collections didn't restart until January 15.