Japanese New Year: Traditions, Countdowns and Fireworks in Tokyo

In some countries, Christmas decors get taken down well after Christmas (or even New Year), but in Japan, after the 25th, it’s as if Christmas never happened. That’s because  in Japan, Christmas is, like Halloween, just another fun holiday without traditional, cultural (let alone religious) significance, and the traditional winter holiday for the Japanese is oshogatsu (literally, “first month”), or New Year.