Society Reiwa 8/8/8 sparks wedding rush across Japan

Japan saw a wave of weddings, special discounts and commemorative events on 8 August 2026 (令和8年8月8日), as the date brought together a rare combination of three eights — the eighth day of the eighth month in Reiwa 8. The number eight is traditionally considered auspicious in Japan because its kanji, 八, widens towards the bottom and is associated with expanding prosperity.


Couples headed to municipal offices to register their marriages on the symbolic date, with particularly heavy traffic reported in Tokyo's Kōtō Ward from the morning. Marriages registered that day were also nicknamed "honey marriages", or hachimitsu-kon (はちみつ婚), a play on the Japanese reading of the numbers and the word hachimitsu (蜂蜜), meaning honey. By 1 pm, 230 couples had registered their marriages in Kōtō Ward. To mark the occasion, the ward presented the newlyweds with locally produced honey.

Municipalities containing the character for eight in their names also drew attention. Based on municipal codes compiled by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, Japan has 12 cities and nine towns whose names include the character. The cities include Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture, Yashio in Saitama Prefecture and Yatsushiro in Kumamoto Prefecture, while the towns include Yakumo in Hokkaido, Hachijo in Tokyo and Yaese in Okinawa. Hachioji in Tokyo was also preparing activities for August 8, joining communities nationwide in turning the unusually symbolic date into a day of celebrations, promotions and local events.

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