Osaka weather by month

The best time to visit Osaka is April, May and November — 84/100 in November, 19°C and 6 rainy days. The best season is spring, March to May (80/100 on average).

The worst month is July at 51/100 — sweltering, soaked, muggy air. See July →

Japan's kitchen: a flat, loud, food-first city with a canal-side entertainment district and none of Kyoto's reserve.

Updated September 2026 · climate normals from ERA5 reanalysis

Planning the wider trip? Best time to visit Japan →

Osaka🇯🇵 Japan · Mainland Japan · City84
  1. 69Jan
  2. 71Feb
  3. 75Mar
  4. 83Apr
  5. 82May
  6. 66Jun
  7. 51Jul
  8. 53Aug
  9. 61Sep
  10. 80Oct
  11. 84Nov
  12. 73Dec

Best season: March to May (80/100 on average) · worst July (51/100)

Days
19°C
Nights
11°C
Wet days
6
Sun
7.8 h
Humidity
76%
Daylight
10 h
Osaka, Japan
Photo: Vinny Anugraha · Pexels

Osaka, month by month

Comfort score out of 100 for the kind of trip Osaka is best for, the average high, rainy days and hours of sun a day from the climate normals, and how busy it tends to be.

MonthScoreTierHighRainSunCrowdsOn
Jan69C10°C6 d8 hPeak2
Feb71B11°C7 d8 hQuiet1
Mar75B16°C10 d8 hBusy2
Apr83A21°C10 d9 hPeak3
May82A25°C11 d9 hPeak1
Jun66C29°C13 d9 hQuiet1
Jul51D33°C15 d9 hPeak2
Aug53D35°C12 d10 hPeak2
Sep61C30°C13 d8 hQuiet2
Oct80A24°C12 d8 hPeak—
Nov84A19°C6 d8 hShoulder1
Dec73B13°C6 d7 hBusy2

What each month is like in Osaka

Written by SeasonMap's editors from what actually happens on the ground — not from the averages.

  1. January

    Cold and dry. The city closes for the first days of the year, then Toka Ebisu draws big crowds to Imamiya shrine in the second week.

    festivalclosed

  2. February

    The coldest and cheapest month, with plum blossom at Osaka Castle from the middle of it.

    blossomlow season

  3. March

    Blossom opens in the last days of the month, the food streets fill and the baseball season starts.

    blossomshoulder

  4. April

    Cherry blossom usually peaks in the first week, and the Mint Bureau's late-flowering avenue opens to the public shortly after.

    blossompeak

  5. May

    Warm, dry and comfortable, apart from Golden Week in the first week when the whole country is travelling.

    holidaypeak

  6. June

    The rain season sets in around the second week: humid, grey and quiet, and the covered arcades come into their own.

    monsoonlow season

  7. July

    Tenjin Matsuri on 24-25 July puts boats and fireworks on the river, in serious heat and humidity.

    festivalpeak

  8. August

    The hottest and most humid month, with typhoon risk, and Obon in the middle emptying the offices.

    typhoonholiday

  9. September

    Still hot and still in typhoon season; the heat breaks only in the last week.

    typhoonlow season

  10. October

    Clear, dry and warm: the best month here, with the festival season on and almost no rain.

    peak

  11. November

    Cool, dry and bright, with autumn colour in the city parks during the second half of the month.

    harvestshoulder

  12. December

    Cold, dry and lit up, with the food streets busy right up to the point the city shuts for New Year.

    festivalclosed

What's on in Osaka through the year

Festivals, natural spectacles, holidays and the seasons to watch out for — curated and sourced. The month pages carry the detail.

January
  • Toka Ebisu9–11 JanFestival
February
  • Plum blossom at the castle10 Feb – 15 Mar (usually)Nature
March
  • Cherry blossom25 Mar – 10 Apr (usually)Nature
April
  • Golden Week29 Apr – 5 MayHoliday
  • Mint Bureau cherry passage9–15 AprOpening
June
  • Tsuyu rain season5 Jun – 20 Jul (usually)Season
July
  • Tenjin Matsuri24–25 JulFestival
August
  • Obon13–16 AugHoliday
  • Typhoon season1 Aug – 30 Sep (usually)Hazard
September
  • Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri18–20 SepFestival
November
  • Autumn colour15 Nov – 5 Dec (usually)Nature
December
  • New Year shutdown29 Dec – 3 JanClosure

Everything on in Osaka through the year →

Crowds in Osaka in November

How busy the place itself is — school and mass holidays, the months an editor tagged, and how sought-after the weather makes them. Never part of the comfort score.

Shoulder seasonbetween the peaks

JFMAMJJASOND

Peak crowdsBusyShoulder seasonQuiet

Good to know before you go to Osaka

Real experiences from travellers' own write-ups, quoted with a link to the original.

Food & drink

A traveler recounts burning the roof of her mouth on her very first takoyaki in Dotonbori, not realizing how long the molten octopus-batter filling stays scalding hot inside its crisp outer shell - a mistake she notes nearly every first-timer seems to make while getting jostled by the dense crowds along the strip. She describes Dotonbori itself less as a single food street and more as a full sensory event: absurdly long lines forming at whichever takoyaki stall is currently trending, grilled crab, roasted chestnuts, gyoza and dango stalls packed shoulder to shoulder along the canal. Her practical tip after the burn: let takoyaki sit and cool for a solid minute before biting in, no matter how good it smells straight off the grill, and don't be afraid to eat standing at the stall rather than trying to find a place to sit, since that's how most locals actually eat it there. Posters generally rate Dotonbori as an essential, if chaotic, first stop for Osaka street food, the crowds and the heat both part of the experience rather than a flaw.
Wander Kid Travels · Read the original ↗

Traveller notes on Osaka

What people who have been say about the place — the year-round notes first, then month by month.

Osaka forum threads describe January as cold but usually clear, with typical temperatures cited around 6-10C, though one visitor reported nights down to 3C and days around 11-13C that felt colder still due to wind. Posters noted Osaka runs slightly colder than Tokyo, though several specifically said visitors from colder climates like Toronto would find it entirely manageable. Real snow was described as rare in the city, with one poster reporting very light snow experienced in both Osaka and Kyoto during a mid-January visit, but major snow accumulation was called uncommon. A practical detail repeated across threads: it gets dark shortly after 5pm, and many temples and shrines close around 4:30-5pm, so posters recommended planning sightseeing with the early sunset in mind.
DotonboriRegular · January · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗
Late March here swings hard - one day mild, the next genuinely cold - and regulars pack for both: long sleeves, a sweater, a light jacket and something that rolls up small. Our row gives 15.7C reading as 14C and 7C nights that feel like 4C, with 104.6mm of rain across 9.9 days, so the umbrella is not optional either. On the blossom they are careful: the trees will be somewhere between budding and open depending on the year's warmth, and the forecast is the only guide. This is the same caution kagoshima/3 records further south, where the season starts earlier. The record: humidity 72 percent, 8.4 hours of sun and AQI 64.
WarmDayFreezingDay · March · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗
April in Osaka is the blossom month with a deadline attached. Regulars put the season from the end of March to about mid-April and are blunt that by the 15th to the 22nd you have missed it in the city; Mount Yoshino in Nara is the day trip they send late arrivals on. The temperatures they give - 10 to 20C - bracket our row's 11.9C nights and 21C days, and the packing follows from that: layers, long sleeves over a t-shirt, a jumper or light jacket for the evening, and no need for a proper coat. The item they insist on is a rain jacket, because April here is wet - our row carries 137.3mm across 9.8 days. The record: 8.9 hours of sun, humidity 72 percent and AQI 70.
TooLateByTheTwentieth · April · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗
Osaka's forum calls May close to the best month of the year — T-shirt weather by day, a light jacket worth carrying for evenings, and the rainy season not arriving until early June. Regulars note it can still swing a few rainy days into an otherwise sunny week, so a foldable umbrella is standard advice.
Tripadvisor community · May · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗
Regulars rate October among the best months here - warm clear days, cool but not cold evenings, few tourists and no major holidays - and add two corrections. Typhoons rarely reach this far into the month; they usually finish earlier, and a late one is likely just a day of rain. And there is no autumn colour yet: the leaves in Osaka and Kyoto do not turn until mid-November, so anyone booking October for foliage has the wrong month. Our row queries their word dry, at 170.9mm across 11.5 days under 7.7 hours of sun, though the temperature matches at 24.3C over 16.6C. A light jacket and a sweater, not a coat. The record: humidity 77 percent, a 22.7C sea and AQI 55.
NoColourUntilNovember · October · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗
Osaka forum regulars rate November among the best months of the year: not too cold, not too warm most of the days, typically “15 to 18 degrees around the middle of November,” with the fall colour as much a draw as the temperature. A long-sleeve shirt and a light jacket cover most days; a down jacket is optional depending on tolerance, since it doesn't have to be freezing to feel cold, especially at night. The trade for the ideal weather: peak tourist season, so early hotel bookings and larger crowds at the major sights are the expected cost. The best foliage shows up late in the month, and by mid-November viewing spots have shifted to higher elevation as lower-elevation colour fades. Our record: 16.9°C days, 9.3°C nights, 6 rain days and 8 hours of sun — mild and mostly dry, matching the “one of the best months” read closely.
Tripadvisor community · November · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗
Regulars are specific that the coldest winter stretch usually doesn't set in until late December, and even then it isn't brutal, especially during the day - mornings can start in the low single digits Celsius before climbing to a manageable afternoon. Our row backs that cool-not-harsh read, 12.9C over 5.5C nights feeling 3C, with 49.3mm of rain across 5.6 days and only a trace of snow, 0.2cm, matching regulars' consensus that real snow in the city itself is genuinely rare. Regulars are consistent that conditions stay dry and often sunny rather than gray, a real upside for a December city trip. A warm layer for the evenings is the standard packing tip, not a heavy winter coat. The sea sits at a cold 11.9C. The record: humidity 75 percent, 7.4 hours of sun, a 15.1 kph wind and AQI 56.
NotBrutalColdEspeciallyDuringDaytime · December · 1 month ago · Read more on Tripadvisor ↗

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