VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg or Yokohama?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Johannesburg for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’s own page.

Choose Yokohama for

  • getting around
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Johannesburg 5, Yokohama 46: Yokohama leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Yokohama 72: Yokohama leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Yokohama 55: Johannesburg leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Yokohama 44: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Yokohama 66: Yokohama leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 69 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Yokohama 55: Johannesburg leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Yokohama 56: Yokohama leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Yokohama.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Yokohama
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgYokohama

Where the figures come from

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgYokohama
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageJapanese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1,753 m24 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgYokohama
City population4,803,2623,757,630
People per km²2,9228,585
Museums within 10 km1438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg or Yokohama somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.