Meiji Jingu does not have opening hours in the usual sense. The shrine opens with the sunrise and closes with the sunset, so the gate times move every month, from 6:40 to 16:00 in December to 5:00 to 18:30 in June. Walking into the precinct is not ticketed. Two enclosures inside it are, and the shrine’s own pages do not agree on what one of them costs.
The gate times change twelve times a year, and four months share the 5:00 opening
The shrine publishes a month-by-month table on its opening hours and admission page, together with the statement that Meiji Jingu is open every day of the year.
| Month | Opens | Closes | Hours open (my calculation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6:40 | 16:20 | 9 hours 40 minutes |
| February | 6:20 | 16:50 | 10 hours 30 minutes |
| March | 5:40 | 17:20 | 11 hours 40 minutes |
| April | 5:10 | 17:50 | 12 hours 40 minutes |
| May | 5:00 | 18:10 | 13 hours 10 minutes |
| June | 5:00 | 18:30 | 13 hours 30 minutes |
| July | 5:00 | 18:20 | 13 hours 20 minutes |
| August | 5:00 | 18:00 | 13 hours |
| September | 5:20 | 17:20 | 12 hours |
| October | 5:40 | 16:40 | 11 hours |
| November | 6:10 | 16:10 | 10 hours |
| December | 6:40 | 16:00 | 9 hours 20 minutes |
The right-hand column is mine, worked out by subtracting each printed opening time from its printed closing time. The spread between the shortest month and the longest is four hours and ten minutes. Four months, May through August, share the same 5:00 opening while their closing times differ by half an hour. August through November land on exact figures, thirteen, twelve, eleven and ten hours in that order, and January and December share the same 6:40 opening.
One qualification sits under the table in the shrine’s own words: places and facilities inside the Naien may have shorter opening hours, mainly 9:00 to 16:00. So arriving at 5:00 in June buys you the approach, the forest and the sanctuary, and not much else.
Walking in is free, and the Inner Garden asks 500 yen
The admission section of that same page lists two items and nothing else. Meiji Jingu Gyoen, the Inner Garden, is 500 yen. The Meiji Jingu Museum is listed at 500 yen. There is no entry for the precinct, the approach, the main sanctuary or the forest.
The shrine’s how to visit page words the same point from the other direction, saying that Meiji Jingu is open every day throughout the year free of charge. That page carries the same twelve monthly times, but the caveat underneath is close rather than identical. The how to visit page stops at mainly 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The opening hours and admission page writes the same span as mainly 9:00 am to 16:00 pm and then adds a clause about the opening hours of the Gaien and the Kinenkan that breaks off in mid-sentence. The how to visit page prints no admission figures at all, so it neither backs the 500 yen museum entry nor contradicts it.
The garden page describes the Gyoen as once imperial property, commissioned by Emperor Meiji in part for Empress Shoken, and words its 500 yen as a contribution for maintenance rather than an admission fee. It is item 10 on the shrine’s English precinct map, and the features that page names are the South Pond, Kaku-un-tei, Kiyomasa’s Well and a gazebo, with irises in June, azalea in spring and Japanese maples in late autumn.
The Japanese garden page is the one that prints the garden’s own hours, and they do not sit inside the general caveat. It gives 9:00 to 16:30 from March to October, 9:00 to 16:00 from November to February, and 8:00 to 17:00 during June, with 18:00 on Saturdays and Sundays in that month. It says the garden is open all year. It heads the 500 yen not as admission but as a maintenance cooperation fee, which is the same reading the English page gives it. Neither the Japanese page nor the English one prints a group rate, a discount or an exemption for the garden.
Two Meiji Jingu pages print different museum admission
The opening hours and admission page gives the Meiji Jingu Museum at 500 yen. The museum’s own page on the same site gives 1,000 yen for adults and 900 yen for high school students or younger. The Japanese museum page gives the same 1,000 yen and 900 yen, and adds a group rate of 900 yen for parties of twenty or more.
All three pages were live in September 2026, and none of them explains the difference or prints the other figure. The 500 yen in the admission list matches the Gyoen entry directly above it. Anyone budgeting from the admission page alone would be 500 yen short at the museum counter, and the difference between the two printed adult figures is 500 yen, which is my own subtraction.
The museum shuts on Thursdays and stops admitting at 16:00
The museum opens 10:00 to 16:30. The English page states last admission at 16:00; the Japanese page words the same rule as thirty minutes before closing. The Japanese page also carries two qualifications the English page does not: Thursday closure does not apply when the Thursday is a public holiday, and the museum also closes during exhibition changeovers.
Other conditions come only from the Japanese page. Children below primary school age enter free. Children of primary school age and below must be accompanied by a guardian. Holders of a disability certificate enter free, and the page limits that to the certificate holder in person. The English page adds that the museum can be entered with THE TOKYO PASS.
The building opened in October 2019 as part of the shrine’s centenary works, and both language versions credit the design to Kuma Kengo, who also designed Tokyo’s new national stadium. The English page gives 3,200 square metres of display space over two floors; the Japanese page gives a total floor area of about 3,200 square metres in a two-storey building, which is the same number applied to a different measurement. The museum is item 16 on the English precinct map, and its own telephone number, 03-3379-5875, differs from the shrine’s 03-3379-5511.
The addresses differ too, on paper. The shrine’s pages give 1-1 Yoyogi Kamizono-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8557. The museum page gives the same block with the postcode 151-0052.
The forest is man-made, and 110,000 volunteers planted it in 1920
This is the fact that changes how the walk in feels. The shrine states plainly that the forest around the main buildings looks natural but is not. It was planted by 110,000 volunteers, covers 70 hectares, and now holds 234 varieties of trees, all of them donated from around Japan. Every tree was chosen for how it would look in 100 or 200 years, while still reading as a natural forest on the day it was planted in 1920. The project was led by Dr Honda Seiroku, who lived from 1866 to 1952 and who was also responsible for Hibiya Park.
The management rule is the other half of it. Because the forest is treated as sacred, the shrine says there has been no human intervention since it was created: nothing is added and nothing is taken away, the plants sustain themselves, and trees that fall are left where they fall to return to the soil. New species, including rare birds and insects, have moved in.
The shrine itself was established in 1920 to commemorate Emperor Meiji, who lived from 1852 to 1912, and Empress Shoken, who lived from 1849 to 1914. So the forest and the shrine share a founding year, and every tree in it was put there on purpose.
There are three entrances, and cars may use only one of them
The shrine describes its precinct as the size of fifteen Tokyo Domes with three entrances, and says the main buildings sit near the middle of it. That page says only that JR, subway and private railway stations are all a short walk away; it does not tie a particular railway to a particular gate. The Japanese access page gives the same walking time to the main buildings from every entrance, so the gate you choose does not shorten the approach.
Drivers get a shorter list. The Japanese access page states that cars cannot enter from the Harajuku entrance or the Sangubashi entrance, and must use the Yoyogi entrance. It then gives an instruction unusual enough to note down: although the shrine’s address is Yoyogi Kamizono-cho 1-1, the page asks drivers to enter Yoyogi 1-1-2 into a car navigation system instead, for practical reasons. The same page asks drivers to crawl along the precinct roads because wild animals, raccoon dogs among them, can run out, and warns that there are times when the car park is congested and you cannot get in, so it asks visitors to use the trains and other public transport where they can. Bicycle and motorcycle racks are at each approach entrance rather than at one central point.
Next to the main sanctuary is the Kaguraden, where the shrine performs commissioned prayers every day, including purification rites, first-shrine-visit rites for babies and the Shichi-go-san rites for children. Corporate prayers for business prosperity are taken on the same basis. The English precinct map states the rule outright: entry to the Kaguraden is reserved for those taking part in a ceremony. The same map dates the building to 1993 and gives it three floors, two of them underground, with a main ceremony hall that holds up to 800 people.
The Treasure Museum is a separate building at the north of the precinct
The museum page distinguishes two buildings that are easy to confuse. The Meiji Jingu Museum, the 2019 Kuma building, is item 16. The Meiji Jingu Treasure Museum is item 19, sits at the north of the precinct, and the page records that it was designated a national cultural property in 2011. What that page does not say is that the Treasure Museum is shut. The English precinct map prints item 19 as Treasure Museum, Currently closed, and the Japanese precinct map carries the same note on its own entry for the building. The one of the two buildings the museum page describes without a fee is also the one nobody can go into.
Those item numbers belong to the English map alone. The Japanese precinct map runs a different list: on it the Meiji Jingu Museum is 8, the Treasure Museum is 15 and the Gyoen is 20. Two maps of one precinct, two numbering schemes, and it is the English map that the English pages cross-refer to.
Harajuku is the station the shrine’s own pages name
The museum’s access note gives five minutes on foot from the west side of JR Harajuku station’s Omotesando gate, and five minutes from exit 2 of Meiji-jingumae, the Tokyo Metro station on the Chiyoda and Fukutoshin lines. Parking is the shrine’s own worshippers’ car park, P1. How the approach from Harajuku actually plays out, and how long the walk from the torii to the sanctuary takes, is covered in the Meiji Shrine access note.
Sources Checked
Meiji Jingu — opening hours and admission page
Confirmed that the shrine is open every day of the year, that it opens with sunrise and closes with sunset so the hours change every month, the twelve monthly opening and closing times from January at 6:40 to 16:20 through December at 6:40 to 16:00, the note that places and facilities inside the Naien may have shorter opening hours of mainly 9:00 am to 16:00 pm followed by an unfinished clause about the opening hours of the Gaien and the Kinenkan, and the admission list giving Meiji Jingu Gyoen at 500 yen and the Meiji Jingu Museum at 500 yen with no other entry, no group rate, no discount and no exemption.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/opening/
Meiji Jingu — museum page
Confirmed the museum hours of 10:00 to 16:30 with last admission at 16:00, closure on Thursdays, admission of 1,000 yen for adults and 900 yen for high school students or younger, the 2019 opening, the design by Kuma Kengo who also designed Tokyo’s new national stadium, 3,200 square metres of display space over two floors, entry with THE TOKYO PASS, the museum as item 16 on the precinct map, and the Treasure Museum as item 19 at the north of the precinct designated a national cultural property in 2011.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/whattosee/museum/
Meiji Jingu — Japanese museum page
Confirmed the opening in October 2019 as part of the centenary works, hours of 10:00 to 16:30 with last admission thirty minutes before closing, closure every Thursday except when the Thursday is a public holiday, closure during exhibition changeovers, admission of 1,000 yen general, 900 yen high school and under and 900 yen for groups of twenty or more, free entry below primary school age, the requirement that children of primary school age and below be accompanied by a guardian, free entry for a disability certificate holder in person, a total floor area of about 3,200 square metres over two storeys, the five minute walks from JR Harajuku Omotesando west gate and from exit 2 of Meiji-jingumae, the worshippers’ car park P1, the address with postcode 151-0052 and the telephone number 03-3379-5875.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/museum/
Meiji Jingu — forest page
Confirmed that the forest around the main shrine buildings is man-made and was planted by 110,000 volunteers, that it covers 70 hectares and currently has 234 different varieties of trees donated from all over Japan, that every tree was chosen for how it would look after 100 or 200 years while the forest still looked natural when it was planted in 1920, that the project was led by Dr Honda Seiroku who lived from 1866 to 1952 and was also responsible for Hibiya Park, that there has been no human intervention since the forest was created and fallen trees are left where they fall, that new species including rare birds and insects have made their home there, and the dates given for Emperor Meiji as 1852 to 1912 and for Empress Shoken as 1849 to 1914.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/whattosee/forest/
Meiji Jingu — English garden page
Confirmed that the Inner Garden was once Imperial Property and was commissioned by Emperor Meiji in part for Empress Shoken, the bracketed contribution for maintenance of 500 yen, the precinct map number 10, and the features named on the page as irises in June, azalea in spring, the South Pond, Kaku-un-tei, Kiyomasa’s Well, a gazebo and Japanese maples in late autumn, with no group rate, discount or exemption printed and no use of the words tea house.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/whattosee/garden/
Meiji Jingu — Japanese garden page
Confirmed the garden opening and closing times of 9:00 to 16:30 from March to October, 9:00 to 16:00 from November to February and 8:00 to 17:00 during June with 18:00 on Saturdays and Sundays, the note that the garden has no closing days through the year, and the 500 yen headed as a maintenance cooperation fee, with no group rate, discount or exemption printed.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/midokoro/gyoen/
Meiji Jingu — English about page
Confirmed that Meiji Jingu was established in 1920 to commemorate Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, and that the forest covers 70 hectares.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/about/
Meiji Jingu — English precinct map
Confirmed the numbered legend of twenty-three items with the Inner Garden at 10, the Meiji Jingu Museum at 16 and item 19 printed as Treasure Museum, Currently closed, that entry to the Kaguraden is reserved for those taking part in a ceremony, and that the Kaguraden was completed in 1993 with three floors, two of them underground, and a main ceremony hall able to hold up to 800 people.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/map/
Meiji Jingu — Japanese precinct map
Confirmed that the Japanese map numbers the Meiji Jingu Museum 8, the Treasure Museum 15 and the Gyoen 20, and that the Treasure Museum entry carries a note that the building is currently closed.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/guide/
Meiji Jingu — how to visit page
Confirmed that Meiji Jingu is open every day throughout the year free of charge, that it opens with sunrise and closes with sunset, that the same twelve monthly opening and closing times appear on this page, the note that some places and facilities inside may have shorter opening hours of mainly 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, and that the page prints no admission figures.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/visit/
Meiji Jingu — Japanese access page
Confirmed that the main buildings stand near the centre of the precinct, that cars cannot enter from the Harajuku entrance or the Sangubashi entrance and must use the Yoyogi entrance, that drivers are asked to enter Yoyogi 1-1-2 into a car navigation system although the address is Yoyogi Kamizono-cho 1-1, that drivers are asked to crawl along the precinct roads because wild animals including raccoon dogs can run out, that a congested car park can mean no entry so public transport is recommended, that bicycle and motorcycle parking is at each approach entrance, that the same walking time to the main buildings is given for every entrance, and the address 151-8557 Yoyogi Kamizono-cho 1-1 with telephone number 03-3379-5511.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/access/
Meiji Jingu — worship and prayer guidance page
Confirmed that the precinct is described as the size of fifteen Tokyo Domes with three entrances, that JR, subway and private railway stations are all a short walk away, that the main buildings sit near the centre of the precinct, and that the adjoining Kaguraden performs commissioned prayers every day including purification rites, first-shrine-visit rites, Shichi-go-san rites and corporate prayers for business prosperity.
https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/sanpai/
Last updated: September 2026
