Which Tokyo Christmas market is worth the entry fee in 2026?

Source: Wikimedia Commons · ウィ貴公子, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tokyo's Christmas markets come in two prices: the Tokyo Christmas Market charges at both of its sites, and everything else in the city is free to walk into. Toyosu opens on 20 November, Shiba Park on 4 December, and the Roppongi and Azabudai markets on 21 November. Yokohama's warehouse market sits between the two, charging a gate fee with two free zones beside it.

1Which one to pick

The paid market is the same company at both sites, with the same huts, the same glühwein and the same price table. What differs is the ground it stands on: Toyosu is new this year and has the room for a stage, a 14-metre pyramid and a longer row of huts, while Shiba Park is a walled garden square with Tokyo Tower standing over it.

The first day at both Tokyo sites opens in the late afternoon, at 16:00, and Yokohama's opens at 17:00. Every day after that runs the full hours.

Four ways through it, depending on what you want out of the evening.

• Food, drink and a stage in one compound: Toyosu. It's the biggest of the five and the only one with a pyramid in the middle of it.
• The photograph with Tokyo Tower behind the huts: Shiba Park, from 4 December, one minute from Onarimon station.
• No ticket at all: Roppongi Hills for ten huts under the roof at O-yane Plaza, or Azabudai Hills for nineteen shops on the central square. Both are free, both are in Minato, and they're one stop and 15 minutes apart on the Hibiya line.

A ticket is roughly the price of a mug of glühwein and a sausage once you're inside, so the fee is the cost of the second round. What it buys is a closed compound with queue control and a last-entry time, which matters on a December Saturday.

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2The Tokyo Christmas Market at Toyosu

The 2026 market is the first at Toyosu, on the reclaimed ground between Shin-Toyosu and Shijō-mae stations on the Yurikamome. It runs 20 November to 25 December, 11:00 to 21:30, with the first day opening at 16:00. Last entry is 20:30 and the kitchens stop taking orders at 21:00.

Adults pay ¥1,000 on a weekday and ¥1,500 on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday up to 23 December. Primary school children pay ¥500 and preschoolers go free. On 24 and 25 December the adult ticket is ¥2,000 and a child's is ¥1,000.

Source: Wikimedia Commons · Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0

Tickets are sold in 30-minute entry slots and the time on the ticket is a window, not an appointment: a 13:00 ticket gets you in between 13:00 and 13:30. KKday is where the operator sends online buyers, and the advance adult ticket includes the season's mug, which you can carry around the site and have filled for the price of the drink. Turn up late and the slot's own holders go first, though a same-day ticket still gets you in.

The symbol is the Christmas pyramid, 14 metres of it, built in Seiffen in Saxony and shipped over; the market has used it since the first edition in Hibiya Park in 2015. Around it stand the German huts the event ships in, with the ornament sellers, the sausage grills and the glühwein counters.

The ticket is priced against about three hours on site, which is what the operator asks for. No food or drink comes in from outside. And there's no car park or bicycle parking at the venue, so the Yurikamome is the way in.

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3The Tokyo Christmas Market at Shiba Park

Shiba Park is the smaller and later of the two, running 4 to 25 December at the Onarimon station end of the park, 11:00 to 22:00 with a 16:00 start on the first day. Last entry is 21:00, half an hour later than Toyosu, and the kitchens run to 21:30.

The fee table matches Toyosu's ¥1,000 and ¥1,500, and the 24 and 25 December prices match too. One difference is worth knowing: the Shiba Park page prices Saturdays and Sundays only, while the Toyosu page adds public holidays. By the printed tables, 23 December — a Wednesday, and a national holiday — is ¥1,000 at Shiba Park.

The site is the fourth block of the metropolitan park, a minute from exit A6 at Onarimon. The nearest station isn't Shiba-koen, whatever the ticket says, and there's no parking or bicycle parking at the venue. Tokyo Tower stands over the huts from the north side.

4Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse

Yokohama runs 20 November to 25 December, the same six weeks as Toyosu, on the plaza between the two brick warehouses. The hours stretch as Christmas gets closer: 17:00 to 21:00 on 20 November, 11:00 to 21:00 from 21 November to 4 December, then 11:00 to 22:00 from 5 December. Last orders are 30 minutes before closing.

The gate is ¥500 on an ordinary day and ¥1,000 on the peak dates the operator lists: 5 and 6 December, 12 and 13 December, 18 to 20 December, and 24 and 25 December. Junior high school age and under go free to 4 December; after that primary school age and under go free with an adult. Tickets go on sale at noon on 6 November, online through Asoview or in cash at the main gate, and the higher-priced ticket the operator sells — priority entry from ¥2,000 — buys the short queue rather than the market.

Source: Wikimedia Commons · Nesnad, CC BY 4.0

Source: Wikimedia Commons · Nesnad, CC BY 4.0

Two zones beside the paid market are free. Christmas Gate takes over the Shinko Central Square at the warehouse's front door, run with the Yorunoyo light festival, and Christmas Village in the brick park is free, as it has been every year. The operator says the hours for both come out in early and mid November, so a December plan can't fix a time for them yet. The main tree is an 11-metre live fir with about 20,000 lights and a five-minute show every quarter of an hour.

On 25 November the market holds a residents' day: entry is free for anyone who can show proof of a Yokohama address, which means a residence card, driving licence, passport or a utility bill.

5Roppongi Hills: ten huts under the roof

Roppongi Hills has run a market for twenty years and charges nothing to walk into, which is why it comes first among the free ones. It runs 21 November to 25 December, 11:00 to 21:00, on the O-yane Plaza under the big roof.

Source: Wikimedia Commons · ウィ貴公子, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ten shops fill the plaza, four of them selling ornaments and decorations and the rest food and drink. Käthe Wohlfahrt, the German Christmas shop that only trades in Japan during the season, is the anchor, and this year's twentieth edition brings a run of anniversary items. Weekday lunch sets are the one thing the paid markets don't do.

It's a plaza rather than a compound, so there's no ticket and no gate: the queue is at the huts themselves, and the operator restricts the waiting lines when the plaza fills.

Source: Wikimedia Commons · ウィ貴公子, CC BY-SA 4.0

6Azabudai Hills: nineteen shops, no ticket

Azabudai Hills runs the biggest free market in the city this year: nineteen shops on the central square, four selling decorations and fifteen selling food, the most the site has had. It runs 21 November to 25 December, 11:00 to 21:00, on the arena and the lawn in front of it, and entry is free.

It's the same operator as Roppongi Hills and the same German format, and the two are close enough to walk between if you're set on comparing. The trade here is more food than ornament, with the German stalls spread through the square rather than lined up in a row.

7Questions and answers

The booking, the price of 24 December, and whether the ticket is worth it.

Keep reading

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