When Is Ōmisoka 2026? | Thursday, December 31st — New Year’s Eve in Japan, Toshikoshi Soba and the 108 Bells

In 2026, Ōmisoka, New Year’s Eve in Japan, falls on Thursday, December 31st. It is the last day of the year — the night people in Japan eat a bowl of toshikoshi soba and listen to temple bells ring in the new year.

But it was never only a countdown. In old Japan, New Year’s Eve was the night you stayed awake to welcome the god of the new year into your home.

Why soba? Why do the bells ring 108 times? Here is a gentle guide to how Japan spends the last night of the year.

What this article covers

What Ōmisoka is, and when it falls in 2026 (Thursday, December 31st)
What the words misoka and tsugomori mean
Why New Year’s Eve was the night to wait up for Toshigami, the year god
Toshikoshi soba, and the 108 bells of joya no kane
How a visitor can join in, quietly

The word “Ōmisoka”

Misoka (晦日) means the last day of any month. Its other reading, tsugomori, is said to come from tsuki-gomori, “the moon hiding” — in the old lunar calendar, a month ended just as the moon disappeared from the sky.

Of all those month-ends, one is special: the last day of the whole year. So Japanese adds ō, “great,” and calls it Ōmisoka or Ōtsugomori — “the great last day.” It is also called Ōtoshi (“the great year”) or Toshi no yo (“the year’s night”).

It was also the day every debt came due. The Edo-period writer Ihara Saikaku wrote a whole book about townspeople scrambling to settle their accounts on this one day, subtitled “New Year’s Eve: a single day worth a thousand gold pieces.”

A night to wait up for the year god

At New Year, Japanese homes have long welcomed a visiting deity called Toshigami, the year god. The Toshigami is described as a guardian of the harvest, and also as the spirit of the family’s ancestors. The pine decorations (kadomatsu) placed at the gate are there as a landmark for the god to descend to.

In older Japanese thinking, it is said, a new day began not at midnight but at sunset. Seen that way, the evening of New Year’s Eve already belonged to the new year — a sacred night for receiving the god.

So in many regions, families used to:

sit down together on New Year’s Eve for a formal meal (in some places with a special “year fish” such as salmon or yellowtail)
keep a big fire burning in the hearth and stay awake all night

Some places even have a saying that if you go to bed early on New Year’s Eve, your hair will turn white or you’ll get wrinkles — because this was a night to keep the visiting god company.

Villagers would also spend the whole night at the local shrine, a custom called toshigomori. Today, many people visit a shrine in the dark early hours of New Year’s Day for hatsumōde, the first shrine visit of the year — a habit often described as what remains of that all-night vigil.

Why soba on New Year’s Eve?

The classic New Year’s Eve dish is toshikoshi soba — “year-crossing” buckwheat noodles. The custom began in the Edo period, originally as one dish of the celebratory New Year’s Eve meal.

The reasons people usually give:

long, thin noodles for a long life
soba breaks more easily than other noodles, so it cuts away the year’s hardships and bad luck

There are several explanations, but they all come back to one wish: a good year ahead. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture notes there is no set time to eat it — dinner or right before midnight are both fine — but it’s best to finish before the year changes.

Why do the bells ring 108 times?

The night of December 31st is called joya. Around midnight, Buddhist temples across Japan strike their great bells — joya no kane, the New Year’s Eve bells. The practice is said to have begun in Song-dynasty China.

The bell is struck 108 times. The most common explanation is that people carry 108 bonnō — worldly desires and attachments that cloud the mind. Each strike clears one away, so you can greet the new year with a fresh heart.

But how you get to 108 is explained in more than one way:

the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind), each felt as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral (×3), as tainted or pure (×2), in past, present and future (×3)
or the calendar: 12 months + 24 sekki + 72 microseasons = 108

By custom, 107 strikes ring out in the old year, and the final one in the new year.

That same night, some Shinto shrines hold Ōharae, the great purification: the year’s impurities are transferred to small paper human figures, which are then sent away. Bells at temples, purification at shrines — all across Japan, New Year’s Eve is a night for starting clean.

How a visitor can join in, quietly

Have a bowl of warm soba for dinner or a late-night snack — and finish it before midnight
After 11 p.m., listen for the bells of a nearby temple. Some temples let visitors strike the bell themselves (times and how many people can join differ by temple, so follow that temple’s own guidance)
In Kyoto, Yasaka Shrine is known for Okera mairi, where people receive a newly kindled, purifying fire on New Year’s Eve
On the morning of January 1st, visit a local shrine for hatsumōde

And just before the year turns, remember one thing that happened this year and quietly say “thank you.” That’s a proper Japanese year-crossing, too.

For the custom that comes a little earlier in December, see our guide to Tōji, the winter solstice.

In closing

The last night of the year.

Slurping soba, hearing distant bells, waiting up for the god of the new year. Ōmisoka is a night of countdowns — and also a quiet night for letting the year go.

In 2026, New Year’s Eve in Japan is Thursday, December 31st. Why not wave the old year goodbye, gently, over a steaming bowl of soba?

References

Kotobank, “Ōmisoka” (Digital Daijisen, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Nihon Bunka Iroha Jiten, Mypedia, Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, and others)
Kotobank, “Toshikoshi” (Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, Britannica Japan, Mypedia, and others)
Kotobank, “Joya” and “Joya no kane” (Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, Nipponica, Mypedia, and others)
Kotobank, “Toshigami” (Nipponica, Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, Mypedia, and others)
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, “Learn about soba and enjoy delicious toshikoshi soba” (Let’s! Washoku Gohan Project)