Tohoku’s Three August Festivals: Nebuta, Kanto and Tanabata
In the first week of August the north-east of Japan holds three festivals within days of each other, with lantern floats in Aomori, poles of lanterns in Akita and streamers in Sendai. Together they drew more than four million visitors in 2024.
In May 2025 the Japan National Tourism Organization promoted three summer festivals in the Tohoku region as a cooler, more cultural alternative to Japan’s big cities. Together they drew more than four million visitors in August 2024. They fall within days of each other in the first week of August, which makes it possible to see more than one in a single trip.
The Aomori Nebuta Festival, in Aomori City, is built around giant papier-mache figures called nebuta. The floats are lit from within, three-dimensional and up to about 30 feet wide and 16 feet tall, and each takes a full year to build. Twenty-two parade through the streets, with subjects that range from gods and spirits to local personalities, kabuki actors and characters from historical television dramas. More than three million people visit each year. In 2025 the festival ran from 2 to 7 August, and the floats are kept at Rasseland, a ten-minute walk along the waterfront from Aomori Station.
The Akita Kanto Festival, in Akita City, is a centuries-old, lantern-lit festival held to pray for a good harvest. It centres on the five sacred grains: wheat, rice, beans, foxtail millet and Chinese millet. Its origins go back to the seventeenth century, and 46 glowing lanterns light the summer night sky. In 2025 it ran from 3 to 6 August between the Nichomebashi Bridge and the Sanno Jujiro crossroads, with the bridge about ten minutes on foot from Akita Station.
The Sendai Tanabata Festival, in Miyagi Prefecture, is based on the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi, two lovers separated by the Milky Way who can meet only once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month. Depending on the calendar used, the festival falls in July or August; in 2025 it ran from 6 to 8 August. Shopping arcades are hung with handmade ornaments and streamers, and many festival-goers wear yukata. Another JNTO article calls it the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, with paper streamers three to five metres long and seven decorations known as Nanatsu Kazari that are unique to Sendai, each standing for a prayer about a different part of life.
Access is simple by shinkansen: about three hours from Tokyo to Aomori and about 90 minutes to Sendai, while Akita is reached by the JR Akita Shinkansen. Dates change every year, so check each festival’s official site before booking.
Sources
Japan National Tourism Organization, press release of 27 May 2025; JNTO, Places to visit in Miyagi.
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