Los Angeles to Tokyo distance

Los Angeles to Tokyo in a straight line

In a straight line, the shortest distance over the Earth’s surface, Los Angeles and Tokyo are 5,490 miles (8,835 km) apart, 22% of the way around the Earth at the equator. That’s the geodesic on the WGS84 ellipsoid, the distance “as the crow flies”. There’s no road between them: the straight line crosses 5,207 mi of sea, 95% of the way.

From Los Angeles, Tokyo lies to the northwest (bearing 306°), and from Tokyo, Los Angeles lies to the northeast. The straight line reaches Tokyo on a bearing of 236°: the bearing keeps turning along the way (71° in all), which is why the shortest route looks curved on a flat map.

If the plane kept the same bearing all the way (271°, to the west), it would follow the rhumb line, the one that looks straight on a Mercator map: 5,799 miles (9,333 km), 310 mi more (5.6% longer). That’s why long routes don’t look “straight” on a map: the curve is the short way.

What the route flies over

Under the straight line there are 5,207 mi of sea (95%) and 283 mi of land. In order, from Los Angeles: 224 mi over the United States and 59.0 mi over Japan.

The straight line climbs to 48.0° N (at 48.0072° N, 170.5330° W), 12.3° farther north than Tokyo: on a sphere that’s the short way, even if it looks like a detour on a flat map. It crosses the 180th meridian, which most of the International Date Line follows: going west across it, the calendar jumps a day ahead. Planes don’t follow the line exactly: they fly along airways, chase tailwinds and avoid closed airspace, but on long flights they stay close to it.

Halfway between Los Angeles and Tokyo

Halfway along the straight line, 2,745 miles (4,417 km) from each city, is the point 47.9879° N, 168.5732° W. It falls at sea; the nearest town is Adak (Alaska, pop. 112), 449 mi away.

Time difference and flight

A direct flight would take about 11 hr 35 min. That’s an estimate: 30 minutes for takeoff, climb, descent and landing, plus the 8,835 km straight line at 800 km/h (about 497 mph), a typical airliner cruising speed. Real schedules depend on wind, routing and airports, and not every pair has a direct flight. Westbound flights usually take a little longer than eastbound ones because of high-altitude winds (the jet stream).

In January, Tokyo is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles; in July, 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles. It changes because they don’t switch to summer time together.

With that flight time, if you leave Los Angeles at 10:00, you land in Tokyo around 14:35 the next day (Tokyo time) in January and around 13:35 the next day in July.

The two cities

Tokyo is 1.6° farther north than Los Angeles and 102.1° farther west. Los Angeles has 3.9 million people (Census Bureau estimate for 2025) and Tokyo 9.7 million people (GeoNames).