Fireworks Festivals Ditch Summer Over Heatstroke, Lightning Fears

By Ryoma Shintani / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

1:00 JST, October 25, 2025

Japan’s firework traditions are changing, as festivals grapple with such dangers as heatstroke and lightning. A growing number of the events are skipping the customary summer months and opting for autumn instead.

Scheduling has also been influenced by a shortage of security staff, partly due to the Osaka-Kansai Expo this year.

An industry group for pyrotechnicians predicts that “the trend toward scheduling away from summer will accelerate.”

Difficult decision

The Naniwa Yodogawa Fireworks Festival, also known as Yodogawa Hanabi, an event held for more than 30 years on the riverbed near Hankyu Juso Station in Osaka’s Yodogawa Ward, is one festival that moved to an autumn date this year. It is traditionally held in early August, but recently took place on Oct. 18, the first weekend after the Expo closed.

The festival is one of the Kansai region’s largest events, and usually attracts about 450,000 people. While the organizers tried to make security arrangements that would accommodate increased crowds, factoring in the Expo’s influence, they gave up on a summer date due to a shortage of personnel.

Since the crowd crush in Seoul’s bustling Itaewon district left more than 150 dead in 2022, there has been significantly more focus on security at large events.

“Many people were saying ‘fireworks festivals should be held in summer,’ so it was a difficult decision to make, but the most important thing is that spectators can enjoy themselves safely,” said an official from the organizing committee.

The Awajishima Matsuri festival in Sumoto, Hyogo Prefecture, has traditionally been a three-day event featuring Awa Odori dancing and fireworks displays from late July to early August. This year, however, the fireworks display was moved to Nov. 9 due to the large number of security guards needed. Were it held in summer, security costs were projected to rise by 50% due to the effects of the Expo.

An effective change

Other festivals have also abandoned the summer months. The Oyama Fireworks festival in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, and the Iizuka Hanabi festival in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, moved to autumn this year to prevent heatstroke.

The Adachi no Hanabi fireworks festival in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, was scheduled to take place in May, not July as in previous years. However, it was canceled due to bad weather.

Some fireworks festivals have made the shift permanent. The two Tamagawa fireworks festivals — one by Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, and the other by Kawasaki — were traditionally held simultaneously in August on the Tama River along the Tokyo-Kanagawa prefectural border, but they were moved to October in 2018.

The change was made after nine spectators were hospitalized by a lightning strike the previous year. No similar accidents have occurred since.

Minato Hanabi in Kobe has also elected to move to October. After the usual summer event, the Minato Kobe Marine Fireworks Festival, was canceled repeatedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minato Hanabi festival was held in 2022 in autumn to avoid large crowds.

As a result, heatstroke cases — of which there had been dozens every year at the marine fireworks — dropped to zero.

Since the sun sets earlier in autumn, the event ends before 7 p.m., about two hours earlier than previously. This has also led to an increase in restaurant demand in the city.

In a 2022 survey of about 600 visitors, the organizers found that 84% rated the autumn schedule as “good.” “People are avoiding the heat and enjoying the city of Kobe after the fireworks,” said a city official.

Next year’s dates for the Yodogawa Fireworks Festival and the Awajishima Matsuri have not yet been decided. Still, officials from both events are leaving the door open for an autumn event, saying they intend to decide after evaluating feedback from this year’s attendees.

“Due to the recent intense heat, we’re seeing an increased risk of event cancellations due to localized torrential downpours, as well as an increased risk of heatstroke. I expect the trend in rescheduling to continue,” said Haruyuki Kono, executive director of the Japan Pyrotechnics Association in Tokyo, a group of fireworks professionals.