The Ultimate Guide to New Year's in Japan

Filmed at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. What New Year's in Japan is Like.

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[LifeWhereImFrom]

Happy New Year's Everyone! This was shot at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, so it's only a year or two in the making! Really, I wanted to release at the end of 2022, but I got a bit delayed. あけましておめでとう！今年もよろしくお願いします！

[CptFitzgerald]

Another certified banger. As a person who comes from multiple generations of postal workers, it warmed by heart to see all of those carriers on their motorbikes launch off in ceremonial fashion. This video was so blessed. Hapy New Year everyone- this one is gonna be a great one: I can feel it.

[IsaArts]

10:29 The dog barking was hilarious

Im so glad I found this channel, its very neat seeing the Japanese customs on certain events all neatly packed into a documentary/vlog-esque video! I hope your new years goes just as well as the 2022 one!

[C_M_R]

I am Black from the US, and on New Year's Eve I was saying to friends that I grew up in a household that cleaned on NYE because we weren't allow to do so on New Year's Day -- they all never heard of this tradition. I wondered it is just a US Southern tradition, but it is good to see that other cultures do the same. Happy New Year!

[XSpImmaLion]

From Brazil here, Japanese descendant family, most converted to some form of Christianity all over... but up until I was younger, the tradition of getting the family together on new years' eve was kinda kept, in the way Japanese descendent families in Brazil kept it going somehow.

So the separation was, x-mas to be spent with your smaller nuclear family or perhaps the family of members that are not of Japanese descent, but new years had to be with the larger Japanese side of the family. xD I never went to big new years' parties or to see fireworks shows because of that. Some of my cousins when they reached adulthood just managed to convince their families to skip to celebrate elsewhere, but at least some portion of the family was always there with our larger group.

I imagine what we do is closer to what traditions were during the time my grandparents and grand-grandparents immigrated to Brazil, few years before WWII, so it looks nothing like modern Japanese customs, but getting the family together was a thing.

Up until my grandparents generation, we used to still see things like Kamidana, and a few more traditional things. We didn't have osechi, but it was a huge collection of dishes that mixed Japanese stuff with local and that of other traditions... I think early on Japanese immigrants tried to adapt and remake a ton of Japanese dishes using local ingredients which results in this mess of different things. xD

Someone makes nabemono, someone else makes mochi, someone cooks fish, some pork dish, someone orders or makes a bunch of sushi, and then you have an assortment of Brazilian dishes and other stuff so that people who dislike Japanese food had something to eat... xD It was always all over the place.

I remember back when I was a kid a few older relatives still gave otoshidama to kids of the family, but this also kinda died off and got mixed up with different traditions over the years... we also had Secret Santa style gift givings, years we did Bingo games and other types of games, plus a bunch of other different stuff. But the family gets older, the festivities get shorter, and things change.

One aunt of mine, the one we usually stay at, still does Ozoni in the first day of the year... but it's mostly me, my mom and her that enjoys it, most of the family either don't like, or cannot eat (case of my uncle who is allergic to everything sesame seed related... super unfortunate considering almost all Japanese dishes use sesame seeds, or sesame seed oil xD ). He's from Italian descendency though, so it's not like he cared all that much about Japanese food already. xD

Anyways, this will no doubt end in my generation. Most of the cousins my age or younger already don't care much about participating in all of this, most of them don't know the significance of most of these things, and most families of my parents' generation didn't care much about pushing, enforcing, and keeping Japanese traditions that came from their parents and whatnot... it just got so diluted and bastardized over the years that it simply doesn't make much sense. It's also the case like I said that most Japanese descendent families ends up going towards some form of Christianity, so there is little left of traditions rooted in Shinto and Buddhist origins. There are some stuff that I experienced as a kid that I only came to understand and realize where it was coming from after I got older and the Internet was here... xD

Over the years, the larger entire family broke apart, got separated, moved to different parts of the country or even abroad, and started celebrating new years and x-mas with family that is closeby. When I was a kid, we used to get together in either some rented place, a big farmhouse of some relative, or something similar because it used to be a huge group of 50+ people. Particularly when my grandparents were still alive, the larger family got together around them... because from my dad's side, it was 11 between brothers and sisters, and from my mom's side was 9 between brothers and sisters. So, huge extended family. But most of them only had one or two kids.
After my grandparents died and each portion of the family moving away to different corners of the country, it just made it harder to justify traveling long hours to get together... kids got older, lots of them didn't adopt Japanese traditions, and so things starts diluting away.

Before the pandemic we were getting closer to less than 20 people groups.... during the pandemic the core group was reduced to less than 10 I think. We weren't there because it's a long trip away, so I ended up celebrating me and my mom only. :P My mom and dad were the son and daughter that moved to a different state after graduation, so it has always been us to travel to the grandparents state... so from when I was baby up to now end year celebrations has always meant 16 hour trips by car or bus to visit relatives.


Anyways, just to give an idea how things are from my pov, and perhaps the experience of lots of Japanese descendant families. Some traditions were kept as much as possible for a couple of generations or so, but it's likely not lasting much longer than this. Well, apart from some of my cousins that got back to Japan and formed families there... xD

[tankeryy]

amazing documentary as always! also, at 11:04 i really like the meaning behind the red and white colors!

[Pr_Terrine]

Happy New Year to you and your family!
As always, I really love watching your documentaries because they cover so many subjects, from "classic" to more "obscure" ones and it's always done so well. Thank you for you hard work! This one was full of nice anecdotes and i'm always happy to see Akko too, she's so fun C:

This seems like such an eventful period in Japan! All those things seems tiring indeed, but also kinda nice? Like it's a huge change of pace that really feels like it's marking the passage to a new year :D

I live in France and i feel like it's more... laid back? In a good way tho, like you'll find people who will celebrate the New Year by chillin at home alone, some gather with friends and have a party, others gather in restaurants or pubs... One thing that i like, living in a city, is when we hit the end of the countdown, you can run to your window to scream "BONNE ANNÉE !!!" with the neighbouring strangers XD But yeah, you can celebrate the New Year as you feel like and it's fun to change from year to year! C:

[stargazer]

New Year's Eve in our family. We have a family dinner around 5 pm and go to bed at 8 pm. A good night's sleep brings in the best New Year's blessings. No one is on the road driving and worried about drunk drivers or accidents. Everyone is home, safely tucked away in their own beds. The doors are locked and everyone we love is safe inside.

[ddranimestyle]

"First video of the year!"

Thank you for giving us this insight, it's been a real journey! It's interesting to see where formality and tradition meets the practicality of a new age. Much luck to you and your family in the coming year!

[コーギーちゃん]

Wow I’m Japanese but learning so much about Japan from this channel 🤣

[bunyan]

Thank you so much, Greg! You insipired me to aspire moving to Japan which I was more and more doubtful about in the past couple of months... but after watching this video I got reminded why I want to try living in Japan.
Seeing your family sitting together and grandpa writing those beautiful cards made me tear up... so amazing, thank you!

[vasilikonstan]

Excellent video, thank you so much for making this! I was in Japan for three weeks last month, and left on Christmas day. So I was not there to experience the New Year. This video really touched me, as I love Japanese culture so much. And you are so great at explaining things. Keep up the good work!

[dalehazel]

What an amazing episode. Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year!

[mfaizsyahmi]

My man Greg putting out a banger of a video this early into the year!

I wish everyone behind this channel a happy New Year. May you all have a thin long life!

p.s. kinda sad the era of Kouhaku Utagassen competing with Downtown 24-Hour Batsu Game for NYE air time is over. But that's how it goes. Things move on.

p.p.s. Now it makes sense why in manga and anime the characters laze around under the kotatsu at New Years Day.

[jerseystotler]

Wow, I really enjoy your channel!!! I am from America and have always wanted to come visit your beautiful country!🥳Happy New Years!🥳

[mrsw]

such a nice, warm video! thank you for making these!

[ziramy]

This was really great, I really appreciated this. I don't really celebrate new years. I'm not very social and I don't like crowds. But this year I did go to the local fireworks on new years day with a friend.

[iamdmc]

I love your videos
As a Canadian far from home thank you
I hope to visit Japan soon

[nitsaj]

I always enjoy your videos. But videos like this and your long form documentaries are my favorites because I can learn so much.

[furrantee]

One thing I grew up with was trying to stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV and the clocks change then to play Auld Lang Syne. With the Internet now we'll go on Facebook and wish everyone a Happy New Year before bed. I do try to clean as much as possible before New Years. It feels amazing to have a clean house that first week of the new year to start fresh.