Japan Sale Calendar 2026: Full Amazon, Rakuten & Yahoo! Schedule

Online shopping in Japan in 2026: two big peaks and small monthly waves

Look at a full year of online sales and the way prices move is surprisingly simple. There are two big peaks, Amazon Prime Day in summer (around July) and Black Friday in late November, and the gaps between them are filled by smaller waves: Rakuten Super SALE (March, June, September, December), the monthly Rakuten Shopping Marathon (お買い物マラソン), and Yahoo!'s days ending in 5 (5のつく日) and Zorome Days (ゾロ目の日). That's the big picture in a nutshell.

Put another way, if you already know what you want, you rarely need to rush and pay full price as long as you know which wave is coming next. This page first lays out the year's rhythm in a monthly calendar, then covers the quirks of Amazon, Rakuten and Yahoo! in detail, and finally digs into when each product category tends to hit its lowest price. Once you understand why prices move (fiscal year-ends, the new-life season, model changes), the calendar stops being a list of dates and becomes a map of when to buy.

2026 monthly sale calendar: the whole year on one page

Here are the main events at the three big malls, month by month. Highlighted cells mark that month's peak. Dates are based on past years; check each mall's official announcements for confirmed dates.

The table shows that sales are thinnest right after the big events. Late July to early August (after Prime Day) and early December (after Black Friday) are lulls where the headline deals have run their course and prices tend to bounce back. On the other hand, March, June, September and December revolve around Rakuten Super SALE, often overlapping with Amazon's Time Sale Festival, so these are the months when comparing all three side by side pays off most. For a closer look at monthly price patterns, see When to buy based on online sale cycles.

Why prices drop when they do: understanding the motive

Rather than memorizing sale names, it's more useful to understand why stores want to lower prices. There are four main motives.

1. Event discounts to win members (the Prime Day type)

Prime Day and Black Friday are festivals aimed at signing up new members and generating buzz. That's why popular in-house products that rarely get discounted (devices like Echo, Fire and Kindle) drop a lot. But it doesn't mean everything is cheap; the key feature is that selected headline items drop sharply. If you have a target, decide on the exact model number before the sale so you can act as soon as it starts.

2. Clearing stock before the books close (Feb–Mar, Aug–Sep)

Many Japanese retailers close their fiscal year in March, with the half-year close in September. In Feb–Mar and Aug–Sep, stores want to hit their sales numbers and clear inventory. This motive is strongest at electronics retailers' mall shops and for previous-generation models. Our guide to fiscal year-end sales covers this season specifically.

3. New-life demand plus clearing old models (Mar–Apr)

In March, demand for appliances and furniture shoots up as people move, start school or start new jobs, but it's also when stores want to sell off old models quickly as new ones arrive. Discounts appear even in peak season because this clearance runs at the same time. If you're not fussy about the model number, older models in the new-life sales are a good target.

4. Bonus season (Jun–Jul, Dec)

Summer and winter bonus seasons are when purchases of expensive appliances spike, so the malls compete with richer point rewards. Prime Day (July) and the year-end sales (December) are big partly because they line up with when people have money to spend. See also appliances during bonus season.

Amazon: three big sales a year plus frequent time sales — signing up is everything

Amazon's discounts come in two layers: three big sales a year (Prime Day in July, Prime Big Deal Days in October, Black Friday in November), with Time Sale Festivals held throughout the year in between. Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days are members-only, while Black Friday is open to non-members too.

What people most often miss on Amazon is entering the point-boost campaign (ポイントアップキャンペーン). You can buy at the discounted price without it, but the extra few percent in points usually only applies if you enter in advance. There are also often purchase-amount tiers, such as a higher rate for spending ¥X0,000 or more, so bundling your purchases into the sale period makes it more efficient.

Detailed tips for each event:

• How to prepare for Prime Day and what to target
• Black Friday compared across the big three
• Making smart use of time sales

Rakuten: frequent sales and shop-hopping multipliers — managing caps is the game

Rakuten Ichiba's strength is simply how often it holds sales. There's Super SALE (four times a year: March, June, September, December) and the Shopping Marathon almost every month, and both use shop-hopping (買いまわり): the more shops you buy from, the higher your point multiplier. The Rakuten way is to stack this with campaigns like days ending in 0 or 5 (0と5のつく日) and Katta-ra Bai.

But the more you chase multipliers, the more pitfalls appear. Three things matter most:

• The bonus portion has a cap: the extra points from shop-hopping usually have a cap, so if you buy mostly expensive items, anything above it is wasted. It's more efficient to rack up shops with cheap everyday items and buy expensive items at the normal point rate.
• You get limited-time points: most of the bonus comes as limited-time points (期間限定ポイント) with short expiry dates. Unless you plan how to use them up in advance, those rewards will expire.
• Padding your shop count with extra purchases inflates your total: buying from shops you don't need just to raise the multiplier defeats the purpose. Make your shopping list first, then spread it across shops within that list.

Super SALE and the Marathon are easy to mix up, so remember them by role: big purchases during Super SALE (with headline deals like Super DEAL), steady shop-hopping during the monthly Marathon.

• Shop-hopping strategy for Super SALE
• Shopping Marathon and using points wisely
• How to use days ending in 0 or 5
• Using up limited-time points without waste
• Favorites vs. lists: when to use which

Yahoo!: stacking PayPay rewards — a game of picking the right date

On Yahoo! Shopping, PayPay rewards are the main event. What stands out is that the reward rate changes depending on when you buy, more than the discount itself. The key dates are days ending in 5 and Zorome Days (dates with matching digits, like November 11), and stacking various campaigns on top builds up your rewards. LYP Premium members often get an extra boost on top.

On Yahoo!, aim to balance raising your reward rate with staying under the cap. PayPay point rewards often have a cap, so even if you max out the rate, you can lose the amount over the cap on expensive items. Splitting up big purchases and putting your richest rewards on purchases that fit within the cap works well. For a detailed guide to stacking, see How to stack PayPay rewards.

• Making smart use of days ending in 5 and paid membership
• Choosing between the three big point programs

Quick guide: when each category tends to hit its lowest price

Even within sales, the lowest-price season differs by category, because model-change cycles and demand peaks vary by product. Here are the main ones (timing is approximate and can shift from year to year).

The key point is that high demand doesn't always mean high prices. In categories where peak demand overlaps with clearing old models, like during the new-life season, the peak can actually be a good time to buy. For buying guides by category, see below.

• When to buy appliances: calendar
• Fridges & large kitchen appliances
• Washers & clothing care appliances
• TVs & home theater
• PCs & accessories
• Earphones, headphones & speakers
• Choosing a camera and getting started
• Furniture (sofas, beds, tables)
• Watches & smartwatches

How to stack big sales, point days and caps

The secret to maximizing rewards is stacking the discount, point multiplier and reward cap on the same purchase. Rather than blindly following steps, it's faster to plan around your own shopping.

1. Sort what you want into "must be the latest" or "any model is fine"Latest-first goes to the big events; any-model goes to fiscal year-end and new-life clearances. This decides which month to target.
2. Note the regular price before the saleRecord the current selling price first so discount labels don't fool you. Use the comparisons below too.
3. Enter campaigns in advanceSign up first for anything that won't pay out if you forget, like Amazon's point boost and Rakuten's entry-required perks.
4. Buy on point daysLine up a big sale, a day ending in 5 or a Zorome Day, and Rakuten shop-hopping on the same day for bigger rewards.
5. Spread out expensive purchases that might exceed the capAnything over a single cap is usually wasted. Split several expensive items across days or orders, or keep them within the cap.
6. Decide in advance where your limited-time points will goTo avoid expiry, pick what you'll use them on next (everyday items, for example) so nothing slips away.

For a final check on whether it's really cheap, compare with other online stores and price comparison sites, check the total including shipping, and check reviews and the seller. For which of the three malls suits you, see Comparing the three malls and when to use each.

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