Japan’s Summer Has a Sound Calendar: Cicadas, Semi-Shigure, and the Arrival of Autumn

In most of Japan, early summer includes tsuyu, the rainy season. It usually brings several weeks of cloudy skies, frequent rain, high humidity, and steadily rising temperatures from around June into July. The timing differs by region, and Hokkaido does not experience the same clearly defined rainy season as much of the country.

When the first cicadas begin calling near the end of tsuyu, many people feel that summer has properly arrived. More species join them as the weather becomes hotter. By midsummer, streets and parks can be filled with an extremely loud chorus. Later, the calls of tsukutsukubōshi become more noticeable. As the cicadas decrease, bell crickets and other crickets begin to dominate the evening soundscape.

These changes create an audible timeline of the Japanese summer.

The expression semi-shigure compares a large chorus of cicadas to rain. It describes sound coming from many trees, growing louder and quieter in waves. The phrase is useful because it explains both the scale and movement of the noise.

Many people in Japan find cicadas annoying. They can wake people early, interrupt conversations, and fly unexpectedly close. At the same time, their calls are reliable signs of seasonal change. The cultural importance of cicadas comes less from admiring the insect and more from hearing summer progress around you.

What Does Semi-Shigure Mean?

Semi-shigure (蝉時雨, せみしぐれ) describes the sound of many cicadas calling at once. It is often translated as “cicada shower,” “cicada rain,” or “a chorus of cicadas.”

“Cicada rain” is the closest literal explanation, although it is not a standard English expression.

The Japanese word shigure usually refers to brief rain showers that come and go in late autumn or early winter. In semi-shigure, the word is used as a comparison. One group of cicadas grows louder, then weakens as another group becomes prominent. The listener hears sound from several directions, much as rain can be heard across a wide area.

Semi-shigure is therefore more than a large number of noisy insects. It describes the movement, volume, and physical sensation of their combined voices.

Why does a summer expression use a word for cold-season rain?

Semi, meaning cicada, is associated with summer. Shigure is associated with late autumn and early winter. The combined word does not suggest that the seasons are mixed. It simply borrows the sound pattern of passing rain to describe a loud summer chorus.

The oldest example listed in the authoritative Nihon Kokugo Daijiten dictionary comes from a haiku collection dated Kyōwa 3 (1803):

Ukishima ya / ugokinagara no / semi-shigure

This does not mean that Japanese people first noticed cicadas in 1803. Cicadas had appeared in Japanese literature much earlier. The example shows that the specific comparison between a cicada chorus and rain was already in use by the late Edo period.

In Japan, Summer Moves Through Insect Sounds

Japan’s weather agencies announce when tsuyu begins and ends in each region. Cicadas do not announce the beginning of the rainy season. Their first calls are commonly heard while tsuyu is nearing its end and make people feel that the hotter, sunnier part of summer is arriving. This change can be noticed outside a home, station, school, park, or shrine without checking a calendar or weather report.

At first, only one or two cicadas may be audible. The number of calls then increases, and other species become prominent as summer progresses.

This way of tracking the season is not new. Japanese newspapers in the Meiji period (1868–1912) reported the first cicada calls of the year. In Meiji 26 (1893), the Yomiuri Shimbun reported a first call on June 22. In Meiji 30 (1897), the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun treated the first call of the tsukutsukubōshi as a sign that the lingering summer heat would soon pass.

People were already listening to cicadas as indicators of seasonal change.

Japan’s summer sound calendar

The exact dates vary by region, weather, altitude, and local environment. Higurashi may be heard earlier than its popular association with late summer suggests, and several species often overlap. The table below is therefore not a rigid biological timetable. It shows how the changing soundscape is commonly experienced in much of urban and lowland Japan.

The last transition matters. Summer does not simply end when the cicadas become quiet. Another group of insects takes over.

During the day, the cicada chorus becomes less dominant. At night, bell crickets and field crickets become easier to hear. This change can make autumn feel close even while daytime temperatures remain high.

The Cicadas Do Not All Tell the Same Part of Summer

For an overseas visitor, the Japanese word semi may suggest one continuous buzzing sound. People who grew up in Japan are more likely to recognize several voices, even if they cannot always name the species.

The distinctions matter because each call appears in a different setting.

Niiniizemi: the hesitant beginning of summer

The niiniizemi is among the earlier familiar cicadas to be heard in many parts of Japan. Its thin, sustained call can begin while the sky still looks like the rainy season.

That first voice does not indicate the peak of summer. It indicates that the seasonal sequence has begun.

Aburazemi and minminzemi: the sound of high summer

The aburazemi produces a dry sound commonly written as jiri-jiri. The minminzemi produces the mīn-min-min call that Japanese speakers often use when imitating a cicada. Both are strongly associated with the hottest part of summer.

These are the voices of school holidays, parks, shrine grounds, grandparents’ homes, and children carrying insect nets. Cicadas were not merely heard; they were caught, observed, and kept in summer memories.

This connection belongs to Japan’s wider tradition of interacting with insects. Our article on mushitori, Japan’s summer insect-catching culture, explains why insect nets, cages, field guides, and school projects became such familiar parts of childhood.

Higurashi: one cicada can change the mood of a scene

The higurashi is famous for its distant kana-kana-kana call, often heard around dawn or dusk and in wooded places.

Biologically, it is not simply “the cicada that appears when summer ends.” It can begin calling much earlier. However, because it often calls around dawn and dusk, Japanese films, television programs, and literature frequently use it to signal evening, a rural setting, nostalgia, or tension.

The same call can therefore have different meanings. In one scene it identifies a quiet rural evening. In a horror story it can mark the approach of darkness and make the setting feel isolated.

Tsukutsukubōshi: summer is still here, but it will not last

The tsukutsukubōshi has one of the most recognizable names because its Japanese name imitates its call. When its lively rhythm becomes noticeable, many people think of late August and unfinished summer homework.

Temperatures may still be high when it becomes noticeable. Its association with late August comes partly from the fact that it is heard as school summer vacation approaches its end.

Japan’s school summer vacation reinforces this association. The tsukutsukubōshi does not only mark a biological season; it accompanies the emotional countdown to the return of school and ordinary life.

Tokyo and Osaka Do Not Hear the Same Japanese Summer

There is no single cicada soundtrack shared equally across Japan.

Tokyo and much of the traditional eastern urban soundscape are associated with aburazemi and minminzemi. In Osaka and other western cities, the kumazemi has a far more commanding presence.

The kumazemi—literally “bear cicada”—is one of Japan’s largest cicadas. Its loud shā-shā-shā chorus is particularly noticeable in the morning. When many call from street trees at once, they can overwhelm conversation.

The academic paper Entomological Culture and Insect-related Tourism in Japan notes that Osaka has even been described as “the world’s noisiest city for cicadas.” This is not the result of an official global noise ranking. It is a memorable description of how dominant kumazemi have become in Osaka’s summer soundscape.

Kumazemi calls are now recorded in parts of the Kantō region as well. Their spread should not be reduced to global warming alone. Urban planting, transported trees, disturbed habitats, and the species’ ability to live in city environments can also matter.

The supposedly timeless sound of a Japanese summer is therefore neither uniform nor fixed. It changes with geography, urban development, and the insects living beside people.

Japanese People Have Long Found Cicadas Seasonal—and Annoying

It would be easy to turn semi-shigure into a simple story about Japanese people admiring nature. The historical record is more entertaining and more believable.

Historical records show three practical relationships with cicadas: people noticed them as seasonal indicators, used them in literature, and complained when their volume caused problems.

The Shōwa 7 (1932) incident is particularly revealing. Film director Yasujirō Shimazu was shooting on location when aburazemi began calling loudly enough to disrupt the production. Crew members and local children were recruited to catch them, with a payment offered for each cicada.

The incident shows that cultural familiarity did not make the noise pleasant in every situation. The same is true today: a person can complain about being awakened by kumazemi while still recognizing their calls as a normal part of July.

Why Do Anime Use Cicada Sounds So Often?

In Japanese visual storytelling, cicadas are a quick way to communicate season, temperature, time of day, and location.

A shot of a blue sky or a quiet residential street combined with a loud cicada chorus immediately communicates high summer. A narrator does not need to explain that the scene takes place on a hot August afternoon.

Different calls can also change the emotional meaning of a scene.

• A dense daytime chorus can make the heat feel oppressive.
• A higurashi at dusk can create nostalgia or loneliness.
• The same higurashi call in a horror story can make an ordinary rural landscape feel unsafe.
• A sudden absence of insects can create unnatural silence before something happens.

An academic overview of cicadas in Japanese video games and anime describes their calls as a direct way to establish the atmosphere of a Japanese summer.

The relationship between summer and horror has a longer history than anime. Our article on why Japan tells ghost stories in summer explains how Edo-period theater, Buddhist Obon customs, and summer entertainment helped make horror part of the season.

The higurashi works well in these scenes for a simple reason: its call is associated with wooded places and the low light of dawn or dusk. It can make a setting feel remote before anything frightening happens.

How Do Overseas Visitors React to Japan’s Cicadas?

Cicadas are not unique to Japan. They live across many temperate and tropical regions. People from the American South, parts of East and Southeast Asia, or Australia may already know extremely loud cicadas.

Other visitors come from cities where cicadas are rarely part of everyday life. For them, Japan can be a sensory shock.

The surprise is not only that cicadas exist. It is that their calls can fill ordinary urban spaces: station approaches, street trees, school grounds, residential neighborhoods, parks, temples, and shrines.

Reactions vary considerably.

Anime fans may encounter the sound in fiction before hearing it in person. A summer trip then reveals that the familiar background effect is an accurate recording of an everyday Japanese environment.

Some overseas viewers also begin to associate cicada recordings with Japan because of repeated exposure through anime and games. In this way, the sound can represent a Japanese summer even to people who did not grow up in Japan.

Does Semi-Shigure Mean Japanese People Enjoy the Noise?

No. The existence of a poetic expression does not mean that Japanese people enjoy being surrounded by loud cicadas all day.

Semi-shigure describes what the sound is like: it comes from many directions, changes in volume, and covers a wide area. The comparison with rain makes a difficult sound easier to describe.

People can use the expression while still closing their windows, complaining about the noise, or trying to sleep. The important cultural point is familiarity. Cicadas are expected during summer, so their calls become part of how people identify the season.

The response is therefore not simply admiration. It is a combination of recognition, inconvenience, childhood memory, and awareness of seasonal change.

From Cicada Rain to Bell Crickets: How Summer Ends

The final stage of the sound calendar is not silence.

As the cicada chorus thins, evening insects become more noticeable. Suzumushi—the bell cricket—and other crickets fill the night with lighter, more separated notes. The massive daytime sound of summer gives way to the delicate nighttime sound of autumn.

This transition provides another seasonal signal. The weather may remain hot, but the dominant insect sounds have changed.

The sequence is easy to understand: early cicadas begin near the end of the rainy season, several loud species dominate midsummer, tsukutsukubōshi becomes associated with late summer, and crickets become more noticeable toward autumn.

Conclusion: The Cicada Is Part of a Larger Japanese Summer

Semi-shigure means the combined calls of many cicadas compared with rain heard across the trees. The phrase describes a real acoustic experience; it does not imply that the sound is quiet or pleasant. Cicadas can be extremely loud and inconvenient.

Yet their changing voices provide an unofficial calendar.

The niiniizemi hints that summer is beginning. Aburazemi, minminzemi, and kumazemi build the sound of high summer. Higurashi colors the morning and evening. Tsukutsukubōshi suggests that the season will not last. Bell crickets then carry the soundscape into autumn.

Japanese people do not need to admire every cicada to recognize this progression. Repeated each year, the changes function as an informal calendar that can be heard in everyday life.

This is why cicadas in Japan are more than generic background noise. Their calls help people identify where they are within the summer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Semi-Shigure and Cicadas in Japan

What does semi-shigure mean in English?

It literally combines “cicada” with shigure, a passing rain shower. “Cicada rain” or “cicada shower” conveys the image, while “a chorus of cicadas” conveys the basic meaning.

Is semi-shigure a type of cicada?

No. It describes many cicadas calling together. The expression is not limited to one species.

Why are cicadas associated with summer in Japan?

Several familiar species call during different parts of the summer. Their first calls, peak choruses, and gradual disappearance make them audible signs of seasonal change.

Are Japanese cicadas different from cicadas overseas?

Japan has its own combination of species and regional soundscapes, but cicadas also live in many other countries. What often surprises visitors is their density in ordinary Japanese urban spaces and their cultural role in anime and seasonal imagery.

Why do cicadas appear so often in anime?

Their sound immediately establishes a hot Japanese summer without verbal explanation. Different calls can also create nostalgia, stillness, loneliness, or tension.

Does higurashi mean the end of summer?

Not biologically. Higurashi can call earlier in the season. In Japanese media, its dawn and dusk call is often used to establish evening, a rural location, nostalgia, or tension.

What insect sound represents autumn in Japan?

Suzumushi, commonly called the bell cricket in English, is one of the best-known autumn voices. Its clear nighttime ringing contrasts with the dense daytime chorus of summer cicadas.

CoCoRo編集部

サービス業支援メディア運営チーム

CoCoRo編集部は、「感謝の気持ちをカタチにする」ことをテーマに、サービス業界における新しい価値創造を目指す情報発信チームです。​デジタルギフティングや従業員エンゲージメントの向上に関する最新トレンド、導入事例、業界インタビューなど、現場で役立つ実践的なコンテンツをお届けしています。​おもてなしの心をデジタルでつなぐCoCoRoの世界観を、より多くの方々に知っていただくため、日々情報を発信しています。​