Best Meeting Times Between US and Japan Teams (2026)
8 AM Tokyo is 4 PM in Los Angeles the day before. West Coast afternoon windows, the East Coast dead zone, and why the Philippines slot is an hour off. -
Best overlap: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in New York is 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM in Wellington.
Plan around 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in New York, which is 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM in Wellington, to catch everyone during office hours. The overlap barely stretches to 2 hours, so reserve it for what really needs a live conversation and handle the rest async. Because of the gap, Wellington is already on the next day, so confirm you're both talking about the same calendar date.
| Local time | 12am | 1am | 2am | 3am | 4am | 5am | 6am | 7am | 8am | 9am | 10am | 11am | 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm | 4pm | 5pm | 6pm | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | 11pm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New York America/New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wellington Pacific/Auckland |
8 AM Tokyo is 4 PM in Los Angeles the day before. West Coast afternoon windows, the East Coast dead zone, and why the Philippines slot is an hour off. -
London to New York is five hours apart, except for the five weeks a year when it isn't. Exact overlap windows for every US zone, the 2026 DST mismatch dates, and where to put the recurring sync. -
Slack converts timestamps automatically and shows everyone's local time, but it can't fix a bare '3 PM' typed into a channel. The settings worth changing and the habits that do the rest. -