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JP · 2024 yearbook

Wildfires in Japan in 2024

14 fires larger than 200 hectares in Japan in 2024, with 5,225 hectares burned according to their perimeters. Here is the whole year: what the official record says, when and where it burned and what the weather was like.

Only fires of 200 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

The year in a few sentences

  1. According to Copernicus GWIS, 7,430 hectares burned in Japan in 2024: 65% of the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (11,434 ha).

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  2. The worst week was 4 March to 10 March: 3,175 hectares burned in seven days, 43% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  3. The largest fire was the Yamato fire, which started on 9 March 2024 and burned 674 hectares: 13% of the area of the year's 14 fires with a page.

    WorldFires · See the data · Open the fire page

  4. The day of highest danger at a fire this year was 17 September 2024: a Fire Weather Index of 10 (low on the EFFIS scale) at the Ube fire, calculated by WorldFires from ERA5.

    WorldFires · ERA5 · See the data · Open the fire page

Official burned area
7,430 ha
Copernicus GWIS · ×0.6 the average
Fires with a page
14
5,225 ha within their perimeters
Largest fire
674 ha
Yamato · 9 Mar
Highest FWI
10 Low
17 Sept · Ube

Map of the year

Copernicus GWIS
One circle per fire, sized by its area. Tap one to open its page.

Month by month

Hectares within the perimeters by the month the fire started. Tap a month to see it on the map.

Week by week, against other years

Copernicus GWIS

Cumulative burned area in 2024 over the lowest and highest of each week in the record since 2012, and its average. The bars below show what burned each week. Tap the chart to see a week. The average and the band are the Copernicus GWIS climatology for 2012–2025, which includes 2024 itself.

0 6,152 12k 18k Worst week · 3,175 ha Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
2024 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest Hectares each week

Every year since 2012

Copernicus GWIS

Hectares burned per year in the official record. Tap a year to open its yearbook.

2024: 7,430 ha Average of the other years: 11,434 ha

Cite this

Markdown version

Copy the sentences with their source and link. WorldFires data are CC BY 4.0: credit WorldFires and the original source.

- According to Copernicus GWIS, 7,430 hectares burned in Japan in 2024: 65% of the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (11,434 ha).
- The worst week was 4 March to 10 March: 3,175 hectares burned in seven days, 43% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.
- The largest fire was the Yamato fire, which started on 9 March 2024 and burned 674 hectares: 13% of the area of the year's 14 fires with a page.
- The day of highest danger at a fire this year was 17 September 2024: a Fire Weather Index of 10 (low on the EFFIS scale) at the Ube fire, calculated by WorldFires from ERA5.

WorldFires, “Wildfires in Japan in 2024”, https://worldfires.org/en/country/japan/2024 (accessed 12 November 2026). Sources: Copernicus GWIS, WorldFires, WorldFires · ERA5.

Fires of 2024, largest first · 14

Burned area in 2024 (Copernicus Land, Sentinel-3)

According to Copernicus Land, 26,845 ha burned in 2024: rank 5 of 7 complete years (1 = the most burned). The average of those years is 27,647 ha.

The area the Sentinel-3 satellite sees burned each month, separate from the fire pages. It is the same source and the same method every year, so years can be compared with each other. It counts everything that burns, including crop and pasture burning, which is why it does not match the fire pages or the official statistics.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Where most burned in 2024

  1. Kumamoto 12,445 ha
  2. Shizuoka 3,254 ha
  3. Oita 3,121 ha
  4. Tochigi 1,961 ha
  5. Yamanashi 1,883 ha
  6. Yamaguchi 1,149 ha
  7. Aomori 788 ha
  8. Kagoshima Prefecture 462 ha
  9. Okayama Prefecture 397 ha
  10. Miyazaki Prefecture 371 ha

The whole series since 2018

Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, “Burnt Area 2018-present (raster 300 m), global, monthly – version 4”, monthly Sentinel-3 product, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34. Generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information; worldfires.org adds up, by country and region, the true area of the 300 m cells where a burn was detected. Latest month published: May 2026. Product page · Methodology

Sources and limits

Fire-page areas are satellite-measured perimeters and may differ from official statistics. The yearly and weekly record is the Copernicus GWIS estimate. The FWI is our own calculation from ERA5 at each fire's location: it is not an official danger warning.

Perimeters: Copernicus EFFIS and GWIS (and MTBS, NIFC or NBAC in North America). Hotspots: NASA FIRMS (VIIRS). Weather: Copernicus ERA5 via Open-Meteo. How it is calculated