Museums of Japan

Japan keeps its memory in museums — imperial treasures and samurai armour, Jomon pottery and steam locomotives, contemporary art islands and one-room village archives. This guide lists 4434 museums across all 47 prefectures, 3114 of them with photographs, with locations, maps and links to each museum's official website.

Start with the national museums

Japan's national museums hold the country's greatest collections — ancient art in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara, science in Ueno, and the treasures of Asia in Kyushu. If you visit only a few museums in Japan, start here.

Tokyo National Museum 東京国立博物館
Tokyo — National museum

Kyoto National Museum 京都国立博物館
Kyoto — National museum

Nara National Museum 奈良国立博物館
Nara — National museum

Kyushu National Museum 九州国立博物館
Fukuoka — History museum

National Museum of Nature and Science 国立科学博物館
Tokyo — Science museum

National Museum of Western Art 国立西洋美術館
Tokyo — Art museum

Browse museums by prefecture

Hokkaido

Tohoku

Kanto

Chubu

Kansai

Chugoku

Shikoku

Kyushu & Okinawa

About this guide

Every museum here is documented in open data (Wikidata, CC0), and each page links to the museum's official website. Fees, opening hours and exhibition schedules are not guessed — the official website is the place to check before visiting. Small neighbourhood museums are still being added to open data; this guide grows as the data does.

Looking for more of Japan? See the GIZUMO Network page for our other English guides.