If you’re a fan of Japanese TV shows or anime, you’ll probably notice a rather odd rule, which is that these shows show showtimes beyond the usual 24-hour mark of a movie. day.
Take for example the showtime of a TV show below, there are some times that show 25:30 or even 27:00. Do the Japanese live in another “timeline” where a day is longer than 24 hours?
For late night activities they use a slightly different time system.
Actually that’s not the case. The Japanese still go through 24 hours a day like anywhere else in the world. However, for late-night activities such as TV shows, bars, clubs… they use a slightly different time system , which can be temporarily called a 30-hour system . Accordingly, this time system ends a day at 6am the next morning instead of 24h at night as usual.
That is, every time after 24h to 6am is converted to this time system in business establishments or nighttime television programs. For example, 1am will become 25h, 2:45am will become 26h45.
Why is it so awkward? There’s really nothing complicated about it. The reason they use a weird time system like this is to make sure service users don’t get confused about the hours of operation , and don’t have to worry about specifying the day/night time . For example, a bar that opens late instead of recording opening hours as 10 am (evening) – 2 am (morning) can be briefly recorded as 10 pm-26 pm as customers understand.
For example, the Dondon Donki chain of stores in Japan records opening hours from 8:00 to 25:00 as opening from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. the next night. If it says 8:00 to 1:00, customers may mistake that this store is only open until 1pm.
Dondon Donki chain stores in Japan record operating hours from 8:00 to 25:00.
The reason for this time system is partly because closing time is considered a continuation of the previous working day and perhaps also due to the cultural perception that late night or early morning count as part of the previous day, instead of clearly dividing the day before and the next day at the 24h mark. Broadcasters will also frequently use this notation in their late-night showtimes. However, this usage of the time system is rarely used in everyday conversation.
One use case in day-to-day communication is probably when night shift workers refer to their shifts to avoid confusing night shifts with day shifts. Another benefit, is that you can easily calculate the number of hours worked in this hourly system. For example, a facility that is open from 6 p.m. to 5 p.m. would easily count as operating for 7 hours. Meanwhile, if you record in the usual way in the world, you have to take another step of adding and subtracting through the 24h mark, it only takes a few seconds, but it is also a bit inconvenient if you are busy.