Tokyo or Yokohama?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Tokyo if your trip runs on eating out and going out: far more places to drink and dance, more restaurants near the centre, and more worth walking to between them.
Choose Yokohama if you want the sea in the plan. The water is 1km from the centre rather than 5km, with a longer stretch of swimmable months and quieter nights.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Yokohama leads by 28 points.28
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 49 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 5 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 5 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Tokyo leads by 12 points.12
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 78 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 6,936 | 3,004 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 25 | 24 |
Museums & heritage. Tokyo leads by 13 points.13
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 53 |
| Museums within 10 km | 302 | 57 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 52 | 31 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 17 | 54 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Tokyo leads by 21 points.21
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 6,895 | 2,344 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 3,033 | 1,498 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 44 | 64 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 58 | 33 |
Nature & day trips. Tokyo and Yokohama are level on 58.
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 58 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | — | — |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 85 | 67 |
| Park area within 2 km | 85 hectares | 88 hectares |
Good for families. Tokyo leads by 13 points.13
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 58 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 16 |
| Park area within 2 km | 85 hectares | 88 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 9 | 8 |
Sights concentration. Tokyo leads by 16 points.16
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 44 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 121 | 49 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Tokyo and Yokohama are level on 70.
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 70 |
| Price level global | 62.4 | 62.4 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Tokyo leads by 1 points.1
| Tokyo | Yokohama | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 10 °C to 31.5 °C | 9.5 °C to 30.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 57 mm to 237 mm | 46 mm to 219 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Tokyo has about three times as many places to drink and twice as many nightclubs, about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and many times as many museums.
Yokohama answers with water: the sea is 1km from its centre against 5km in Tokyo, 2 beaches nearby rather than 1, and 5 months of sea at 21°C or more against 4. What it does have, museums and drinking alike, sits tightly around the centre rather than spread across districts.
Where they are alike
Nature and day trips separate them least: park space near the centre is much the same in each, so time outdoors or a day out of the city works similarly from either base.
The weather is close as well: 10°C in the coolest month in both, a summer peak of 32°C against 30°C, and the same 1924 sunshine hours. Neither gets a month at 40mm of rain or less, and both cover a similar range of kitchens.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose evenings matter most should take Tokyo: far more bars and clubs, roughly twice the restaurant choice near the centre, and enough spread beyond the core to make several districts worth a night.
A family planning a summer around the water is better served in Yokohama, with the sea 1km from the centre, 2 beaches and swimming at 26°C in August.
For a short trip done on foot, Tokyo packs about twice as many notable places into walking range and many more museums, plus about three times the attractions and 9 theme parks within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, and this dataset carries no daily budget for either. No cost comparison between Tokyo and Yokohama is possible, so read that axis as carrying no information about which trip works out cheaper.
Yokohama's advantage at the sea is seasonal. The months when the water is 21°C or more are also among the wettest, with 219mm in September, so a swimming trip carries a rain risk. Its tighter clustering of museums and nightlife around the centre reflects a smaller total, not a denser city.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).
May is Tokyo's strongest month, 24°C with 140mm of rain. Summer turns hot and wet, and October is the wettest of the year at 237mm; winter is drier but cool, with highs of 10-12°C.
Yokohama peaks in July, 28°C with 145mm, cooler than Tokyo at the same time of year and easier for a full day outdoors; the sea reaches 26°C in August, and its early autumn is drier than Tokyo's.
Getting there
| Flying from | Tokyo | Yokohama |
|---|---|---|
| SeoulICN, GMP | 2 h 10 m €124-187 NRT · 56 km | 2 h 10 m €124-187 NRT · 77 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 2 h 45 m €296-314 HND · 18 km | 2 h 45 m €296-314 HND · 18 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 4 h 10 m €255-268 NRT · 56 km | 4 h 10 m €255-268 NRT · 77 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 11 h 0 m €789-943 HND · 18 km | 11 h 0 m €789-943 HND · 18 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 6 h 10 m €318-337 NRT · 56 km | 6 h 10 m €318-337 NRT · 77 km |
| OsakaKIX, ITM, UKB | 1 h 10 m €106-119 HND · 18 km | 1 h 10 m €106-119 HND · 18 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 3 h 10 m €333-353 HND · 18 km | 3 h 10 m €333-353 HND · 18 km |
| DohaDOH | 10 h 25 m €931-1048 1 stop HND · 18 km | 10 h 25 m €931-1048 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 11 h 40 m €786-939 1 stop HND · 18 km | 11 h 40 m €786-939 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 13 h 55 m no fares NRT · 56 km | 13 h 55 m no fares NRT · 77 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Tokyo | Yokohama |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Japanese | Japanese |
| Currency | Yen (JPY) | Yen (JPY) |
| Sockets | AB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region | AB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+9 | UTC+9 |
| Emergency number | Police 110, fire 119 | Police 110, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 6 m | 24 m |
| Main airport | Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre97 non-stop destinations | Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre97 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 16 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Tokyo | Yokohama |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 14,264,798 | 3,757,630 |
| People per km² | 6,501 | 8,585 |
| Museums within 10 km | 191 | 38 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 125 | 66 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tokyo or Yokohama somewhere new.