How long is the flight from LAX to Tokyo?
Plan on 11 to 12 hours flying west. Schedules list 11h 40m to 12h into Haneda. Into Narita, Singapore Airlines and ZIPAIR are the quickest at about 11 hours. The flight home is shorter, about 10 hours, with the jet stream behind you.
Tokyo is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles in winter and 16 hours ahead during US daylight saving time. A late-morning departure from LAX lands mid-afternoon the next day. Coming back, you land in LA about seven hours earlier on the clock than you left Tokyo, usually on the same date.
Which airlines fly nonstop from LAX to Tokyo?
Into Haneda there are seven nonstops a day. ANA and American fly twice a day, and Delta, Japan Airlines and United once each. ANA and American both have a flight that leaves LAX around midnight and lands about 5am Tokyo time. Take it only if you sleep well on planes and have somewhere to go at dawn.
Into Narita there are five a day: ANA, Japan Airlines, United, Singapore Airlines and ZIPAIR, once each, all leaving LAX between mid-morning and early afternoon.
Singapore Airlines' SQ11 is worth a look. Schedules show a Boeing 777-300ER leaving LAX at 2:05pm and landing at Narita at 5pm the next day, 10 hours 55 minutes, the shortest scheduled time of any LAX to Narita nonstop. Japan Airlines' Narita flight, JL61, is a Boeing 787-9.
Singapore Airlines asks for special meals at least 24 hours before departure, so add a vegetarian or vegan meal when you book. Pick the right code: VGML is vegan, with no egg or dairy, and VLML is vegetarian with eggs and dairy.
ZIPAIR is a low-cost airline based at Narita, and it was the lowest fare in our search by a wide margin. The catch is what's left out. Meals and checked bags cost extra, so add them up before you compare it with ANA or United, whose economy fares usually include a meal.
Schedule sites show departure times moving by up to an hour between seasons, so check the exact time for your date before you plan the ride to LAX.
Haneda or Narita: which Tokyo airport is better?
Haneda, if the fares are close. It's in the city: the Keikyu Line Rapid Express reaches Shinagawa in 11 minutes and the Tokyo Monorail reaches Hamamatsucho in 13, according to Tokyo's official visitor guide. On the Keikyu Line you can tap a contactless credit card at the gate, with no ticket to buy.
Narita is in neighboring Chiba prefecture, so the ride into town is longer. The Keisei Skyliner is the quickest train, about 41 minutes into central Tokyo according to Keisei, and it runs to Nippori and Ueno. The Narita Express runs to Tokyo Station.
One Skyliner catch: a Suica or PASMO card doesn't cover it on its own. Keisei's fare is the base fare plus a Skyliner reserved seat ticket, so you need the seat ticket as well as the card.
Narita wins on price and choice. ZIPAIR and Singapore Airlines only fly there, and ZIPAIR's $1,108 fare in our search was $439 below the next nonstop. Staying near Ueno, or catching a train out of Tokyo Station? Then Narita's direct trains make that saving easy to take.
Flying Japan Airlines from LAX: terminal, plane and arrival
Japan Airlines departs from and arrives at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, according to JAL's LAX airport page. Its Haneda flight is JL15. Schedules show it leaving LAX at 1:40pm and landing at Haneda at 5:25pm the next day, about 11 hours 45 minutes in the air.
JAL lists its flagship Airbus A350-1000 on Los Angeles to Haneda every day. In economy, JAL gives the seat pitch as about 84 to 86 cm (33 to 34 inches). Every seat has a power outlet, USB-A and USB-C ports, and a 13-inch screen you can pair Bluetooth headphones with. Premium economy has about 107 cm (42 inches) of pitch.
In our November 1 search, JAL was $1,758, the highest of the nonstop fares we found. Decide whether JAL is worth about $211 more than ANA or United to you before you book it.
JAL's international flights arrive at Haneda Terminal 3, the same terminal the Keikyu and Monorail times above start from. Connecting to a JAL domestic flight? Those leave from Terminal 1, and JAL points you to the free inter-terminal shuttle bus.
LAX to Tokyo airfare in our latest search
We searched a December 11 to 18 round trip on November 1, 2026. ZIPAIR came in lowest at $1,108 nonstop. ANA and United nonstops were both $1,547, and Japan Airlines was $1,758. The lowest one-stop fare was United at $1,765, so in this search the nonstops weren't just faster, they cost less too.
December is the expensive month. One-week trips leaving January 11, February 11 and March 11, 2027 started at $938, $883 and $938, about $170 to $225 below December. Each of those is one search for one date, not a seasonal average.
What do you need to enter Japan with a US passport?
No visa for a tourist stay under 90 days. Your passport has to be valid for the whole stay, with a blank page for the entry stamp, and immigration can ask to see your return or onward ticket. Expect to be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival.
That's from the US State Department's Japan page. Entry rules can change, so check it again before you fly.
Fill in Visit Japan Web before you fly. It's the Japanese government Digital Agency's service: you enter your immigration and customs details in advance and get QR codes to show on arrival. It's optional, and the paper customs form still works. Even with the QR codes, the immigration line can take a while, so leave some slack before any airport bus or timed train you've booked.
How we checked this page
We searched Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo fares on November 1, 2026 for a December 11 to 18 round trip and got 40 results from our fare provider. The lowest of them are in the fare table on this page. The monthly prices come from one more search per month, for one-week trips leaving January 11, February 11 and March 11, 2027.
Nonstop airlines, schedules and flight times come from flight schedule sites checked November 1, 2026. Japan Airlines terminal, aircraft and seat details, Singapore Airlines meal rules and Skyliner ticket rules come from the airlines' and Keisei's own websites, checked November 1, 2026. Airport transfer times come from GO TOKYO, Tokyo's official visitor guide, and entry rules come from the US State Department. Every source is listed at the bottom of this page.
Fares shown are the lowest found at the time of the snapshot, per person, and are subject to availability and change at the time of booking. A VootFly advisor re-checks the price and seat before you pay. The VootFly team reviewed this page before it went live.