Paris is UTC+1 (GMT+1) / UTC+2 (GMT+2). Tokyo is UTC+9 (GMT+9, no DST). Tokyo is currently 7 hours ahead of Paris.
Best times to meet (Paris local time): 9:00 AM — 4:00 PM in Tokyo.
Times shown in Paris local time → Tokyo local time. Based on business hours 09:00–17:00.
Paris operates on Central European Time (CET, UTC+1) in winter and Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2) from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. France's adoption of CET in 1940 during the German occupation aligned the country with Berlin time, replacing an earlier French legal time of UTC+0:09:21 (the Paris meridian). After the war, France retained CET rather than reverting, making Paris permanently one hour ahead of London in winter despite being geographically close to the GMT meridian.
Paris is the financial centre of continental Europe and hosts many major EU institutions, international organisations, and multinational headquarters. French business hours typically run 09:00–18:00 CET/CEST, with a longer lunch break than Anglo-American norms. Being in the same timezone as most of continental Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and more all use CET/CEST) means that Paris aligns perfectly with its major trading partners. It is one hour ahead of London in winter but shares the same UTC+1 offset as London during British Summer Time — a period when "Paris time" and "London time" temporarily converge.
French law mandates that meetings involving public agencies begin no earlier than 08:00 and end by 20:00 local time. The European Union has been debating abolishing seasonal clock changes since 2019, with member states unable to agree on whether to stay on permanent standard time or permanent summer time. Until a resolution is reached, EU countries including France continue to change their clocks twice a year in synchrony.
Tokyo observes Japan Standard Time (JST, UTC+9) year-round. Japan abolished Daylight Saving Time in 1951, after experimenting with it during the post-war US occupation (1948–1951), and has not reinstated it since. The fixed UTC+9 offset means that Tokyo's sunrise and sunset times shift significantly across seasons — the sun rises before 04:30 in late June and after 06:50 in late December — but the clock never moves. Japan Standard Time is shared by the entire country, which spans only about 30° of longitude, making a single national timezone practical.
Tokyo is the world's most populous metropolitan area and a global financial powerhouse. The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) opens at 09:00 JST and closes at 15:30 JST with a lunch break from 11:30 to 12:30 — one of the few major exchanges still observing a midday break. Tokyo's fixed UTC+9 means the trading day never shifts relative to the rest of the world's schedules: TSE always closes at 06:30 UTC, just as European morning trading begins. The lack of DST simplifies scheduling with Tokyo; you never need to check "is Japan currently on DST?" — it is always UTC+9.
Tokyo is 9 hours ahead of London (GMT), 14 hours ahead of New York (EST), and 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles (PST). This puts Tokyo so far ahead of the Americas that a live daytime meeting covering both is virtually impossible during normal business hours for either side. It is 1 hour ahead of Beijing and Seoul, and exactly the same offset as South Korea (KST) in winter. The JST zone also covers South Korea's Jeju island in practice, though Korea officially uses KST (also UTC+9).
Tokyo is currently 7 hours ahead of Paris.
When it is 12:00 noon in Paris, it is 19:00 in Tokyo (based on current offsets — verify during DST transitions).
Paris observes DST, changing from GMT+1 to GMT+2. Tokyo does not observe DST — GMT+9 is used year-round.