As of 2022, daylight saving time is used in the following Asian countries:
As of 2022, daylight saving time is used in the following Asian countries:
The People's Republic of China experimented with DST from 1986, but abandoned DST from 1992 onwards. The PRC now uses one time zone (UTC+08:00) for the whole country.
The British first instituted summer time in Egypt in 1940, during the Second World War. The practice was stopped after 1945, but resumed 12 years later, in 1957. [1]
Before the revolution in January 2011, the government was planning to take a decision to abolish summer time in 2011 before President Hosni Mubarak's term expires in September 2011. The transitional government did so on 20 April 2011. [2]
Under the pretext that daylight saving time would save energy, the Egyptian government decided on 7 May 2014 to reinstate summer time with an exception for the holy month of Ramadan. [3] This essentially necessitated clocks to be adjusted four times a year. To know the time, Egyptians had to turn to social media. Meanwhile, certain hotels along the Red Sea disregarded the time changes, opting for "resort time" and effectively establishing a competing time zone. [4] In April the next year, a poll was held on whether to apply summer time or not. Following the results, the government decided on 20 April to temporarily cancel summer time, to make the necessary amendment to the laws and asked the ministers to work on a study to determine the probability of applying DST in coming years or not. [5] The ministry of electricity assured that the achieved electricity savings from applying summer time is not of any tangible effect. [6] Summer time was expected to return in 2016, starting on July 8 (after Ramadan), but on July 5, it was decided to again cancel it. [1] But starting from April 28 until October 25, Egypt will start using DST.
Hong Kong used DST beginning in 1941, but abandoned it from 1980 onwards. [7]
India and the Indian subcontinent employed DST during the Second World War, from 1942 to 1945. During the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971, daylight saving time was briefly observed to minimize civilian energy consumption. Currently, India does not observe DST, and uses just one time zone (UTC+5:30) for the entire country.
Currently, Indonesia does not observe DST. However, various DST offsets were observed from 1 January 1924 to 1 January 1964.
Iran observed DST in 1977–1980, 1991–2005 and 2008-2022 from March 21–22 (1/1 Iranian calendars) to September 21–22 (6/30 Iranian calendars).
Israel observed DST in 1940–1946, 1948–1957, 1974–1975 and since 1985. Currently, DST is observed from the Friday before the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. [8]
Jordan observed DST in 1985–2022 from the last Friday of March to the last Friday of October. On 24 October 2012, Jordan decided to continue observing daylight saving time for an entire year, ending in December 2013. [9] [10] On 5 October 2022, Jordan abolished DST, while changing the country's time zone to what used to be summer time (UTC+03:00), effectively scrapping winter time. [11]
Kazakhstan made a decision to stop observing summer time in 2005, citing health complications as well as lowered productivity and a lack of economic benefits. [12]
Kyrgyzstan voted to stop observing DST in 2005 and make UTC+06:00 as Standard Time (which used to be Kyrgyzstan Summer Time), thus having permanent DST due to the time zone shift.
On 28 March 2023, the Lebanese government reversed a decision to delay the shift to daylight saving time by a month. The decision was reportedly to allow Muslim citizens to break their fasts earlier during the holy month of Ramadan. [13] [14] The decision was dismissed later on.
Malaysia used DST from January 1, 1933, but discontinued on December 31, 1981 to replace DST with Malaysian Standard Time. Other sources claim that Malaysia ceased DST on January 1, 1936, along with Singapore.
As of 2024 [update] , the Philippines does not observe daylight saving time, although it was enforced for short periods during the presidency of Manuel L. Quezon from 1936 to 1937, Ramon Magsaysay in 1954, Ferdinand Marcos in 1978, and Corazon Aquino in 1990. [15]
DST was primarily intended to alleviate the energy crisis by minimizing the number of hours in which electric lighting was needed, reducing the strain on the national power grid. As power generation and transmission capacities improved, the practice was abandoned.
Since 1990, there were several proposals submitted to successive government administrations that sought to reintroduce DST:
A decree of the Russian Provisional Government introduced summer time (Russian : летнее время) in Russia on 1 July 1917, and clocks moved one hour forward. A decree of the Soviet government led to the abandonment of this system five months later: clocks moved one hour back again on 28 December. [25]
From 1930, Decree time had the effect of imposing year-round time-zone advances in the Soviet Union.
A decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR reintroduced summer time in the USSR (Moscow Summer Time, for example) on 1 April 1981, and its practice continued into post-Soviet times until 2011. The changeover dates in Russia were the same as for other European countries, but clocks were moved forward or back at 02:00 local time in all zones. Thus in Moscow (local time = UTC+03:00 in winter, UTC+04:00 in summer), summer time commenced at 02:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ended at 03:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October. (Note that "day before the last Sunday" is not the same as "the last Saturday" in a month where the last day is a Saturday.)
On 8 February 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced cancellation of biannual clock changes in Russia in favor of a permanent switch to summer time. An hour was added in March 2011 for the last time, and clocks did not move back again. At the same time some of Russia's time zones were consolidated. [26] After this reform many Russian cities had a "standard time" two hours more than would be suggested by their "astronomical time" (because the original standard time was already ahead of astronomical time in many areas). [26]
During his 2012 election campaign, Vladimir Putin proposed re-introducing summer time, as some workers had complained about not seeing any daylight during the winter, since the sun had not risen when they went to work. [27] According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, Russian citizens remembered the winter of 2011-12 as the "darkest winter on record" as a result of the time change. [26] However, Putin later said it would be up to then Prime Minister Medvedev's cabinet to decide how to proceed with a seasonal time shift, and it decided to stay with the 2011 policy. [26]
On 26 October 2014, Russia permanently returned to "winter" time. [28] [29]
South Korea observed DST from 1948–51, from 1955–60, and in 1988. South Korea does not currently observe DST.
Syria observed DST in 1986–2022. Since 2012, DST was observed from the last Friday of March to the last Friday of October; however, the days of time switches varied year-to-year between 1986–2011. On 4 October 2022, Syria abolished DST, while changing the country's time zone to what used to be summer time (UTC+03:00), effectively scrapping winter time. [11]
Taiwan implemented DST from 1945–61, revoked DST from 1962–73, reinstated DST from 1974–75, revoked DST from 1976–79 and reinstated it in 1980. Taiwan abandoned DST from 1981 onwards.
Turkey is currently observing year-round daylight saving from September 2016. DST was used from 1985–2016.
In 2008, the Turkish Ministry of Energy proposed that Turkey should abolish summer time while at the same time switching to UTC+02:30, originally from 2009 onwards, but when this appeared infeasible, to start in 2011, [30] the plan has not been heard of since.
For the year 2011, Turkey switched to European Summer Time at 3:00 am (03:00) on Monday 28 March, one day later than the rest of Europe, to avoid disrupting the national university entrance examinations held on 27 March. [31]
Once again, for the year 2014, Turkey switched to European Summer Time at 3:00 am (03:00) on Monday 31 March, one day later than the rest of Europe, to avoid disrupting the local elections held on 30 March. [32]
In 2015, Turkey delayed the switch from European Summer Time by 2 weeks, to 4:00 am (04:00) on Sunday 8 November, two weeks later than the rest of Europe, due to the calling of a snap general election on Sunday, 1 November. [33]
In 2016, Turkey scrapped winter time, by switching to New Turkey Time. This means permanent UTC+03:00, which was used during summer time in Turkey. The switch was on 12:00 am (00:00) on Thursday 8 September, in reality stopping switches between summer and winter time. [34]
These countries or regions do not use daylight saving time, although some have in the past:
Afghanistan 
Armenia (Observed DST in 1981–1995, 1997–2011)
Azerbaijan (Observed DST in 1981–1989, 1990–1992 and 1996–2015)
Bahrain 
Bangladesh (Observed DST in 1942–1945 and 2009–10)
Brunei 
Cambodia 
China (Observed DST in 1986–1992)
East Timor 
India (Observed DST in 1942–1945 during the World War II)
Indonesia (Observed various DST offsets in 1924–1963)
Iran (Observed DST in 1977–1980, 1991–2005 and 2008–2022)
Iraq (Observed DST in 1982–2007)
Japan (Observed DST in 1948–1951)
Jordan (Observed DST in 1985–2022)
Kazakhstan (Observed DST in 1981–1990 and 1992–2004)
Kuwait 
Kyrgyzstan (Observed DST in 1981–2005)
Laos 
Malaysia (Observed DST in 1933–1981)
Maldives 
Mongolia (Observed DST in 1983–1989; 1990–1998; 2001–2006 and 2015–2017)
Myanmar 
Nepal 
North Korea 
Oman 
Pakistan (Observed DST in 1942–1945, 2002 and 2008–2009)
Philippines (Observed DST in 1936–1937, 1954, 1978 and 1990)
Qatar 
Russia (Observed DST in 1917–1919 and 1921 (some areas), 1981–2010. 2011–2014, used year-round DST. In 2014, Russia discontinued year-round DST and switched back to standard time)
Saudi Arabia 
Singapore (Observed DST in 1933–1935 by adding 20 minutes to standard time. On January 1, 1936, country changed their time zone to UTC+07:20 which was used till midnight of September 1, 1941 when it was standardized to UTC+07:30. In 1981, Malaysia decided to standardise the time across its territories to a uniform UTC+08:00, and Singapore elected to follow suit. Singapore moved half an hour forward, on 31 December 1981 at 11:30 pm, creating "Singapore Standard Time" (SST). [35] SST is 8 hours ahead of UTC.
South Korea (Observed DST in 1948–1951, 1955–1960 and 1987–1988)
Sri Lanka 
Syria (Observed DST in 1986–2022)
Taiwan (Observed DST in 1945–1962, 1974, 1975 and 1979)
Tajikistan (Observed DST in 1981–1991)
Thailand 
Turkey (observed DST from 1985–2016)
Turkmenistan (Observed DST in 1981–1991)
United Arab Emirates 
Uzbekistan (Observed DST in 1981–1991)
Vietnam 
Yemen 
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight saving(s), daylight savings time, daylight time (United States and Canada), or summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks to make better use of the longer daylight available during summer so that darkness falls at a later clock time. The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in spring or late winter, and to set clocks back by one hour to standard time in the autumn (or fall in North American English, hence the mnemonic: "spring forward and fall back").
Western European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in:
Summer time in Europe is the variation of standard clock time that is applied in most European countries in the period between spring and autumn, during which clocks are advanced by one hour from the time observed in the rest of the year, with a view to making the most efficient use of seasonal daylight. It corresponds to the notion and practice of daylight saving time (DST) to be found in some other parts of the world.
Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03:00 during the summer.
Time in New Zealand is divided by law into two standard time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / military M (Mike), while the outlying Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST), 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC / military M^ (Mike-Three).
Moscow Time is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia. It has been set to UTC+03:00 without DST since 26 October 2014; before that date it had been set to UTC+04:00 year-round on 27 March 2011.
Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it the same as Arabia Standard Time, East Africa Time, and Moscow Time. During the winter periods, Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) is used.
UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be written as, for example, 2019-02-08T23:36:06+03:00.
Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Eastern Standard Time, Australian Central Standard Time and Australian Western Standard Time.
There are 11 time zones in Russia, which currently observe times ranging from UTC+02:00 to UTC+12:00. Daylight saving time (DST) has not been used in Russia since 26 October 2014. From 27 March 2011 to 26 October 2014, permanent DST was used.
Time in Chile is divided into three time zones. Most of Continental Chile uses the time offset UTC−04:00 in winter time and UTC−03:00 in summer time, while the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region uses the time offset UTC−03:00 the whole year. Additionally, Easter Island uses the time offset UTC−06:00 in winter time and UTC−05:00 in summer time.
Egypt Standard Time (EGY) is UTC+02:00, which is equivalent to Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time and Central European Summer Time, and is co-linear with neighbouring Libya and Sudan. Egypt has used Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00), during the summer periods from 1957 to 2010, 2014, 2015, and since 2023.
The time zone in Germany is Central European Time and Central European Summer Time. Daylight saving time is observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The doubled hour during the switch back to standard time is named 2A and 2B.
Metropolitan France uses Central European Time as its standard time, and observes Central European Summer Time from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. With its overseas territories, France uses 12 different time zones, more than any other country in the world.
Daylight saving time in Turkey was implemented throughout the country in the periods of 1940 to 1952, 1962 to 1965, 1973 to 1978, and 1985 through 2016. In 2016, Turkey scrapped winter time, by permanently staying in UTC+03:00 daylight saving time zone after 8 September.
Daylight saving time in the Americas is the arrangement in the Americas by which clocks are advanced by one hour in spring and moved back in autumn, to make the most of seasonal daylight. The practice is widespread in North America, with most of Canada and the United States participating, but much less so in Central and South America.
African countries, apart from Egypt, do not use daylight saving time (DST) although some did in the past. Only the territories of the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla (Spain) and Madeira (Portugal) implement DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Although these regions politically belong to Europe, they are geographically part of Africa. They have DST schedules according to European Union rules.
Portugal has two time zones and observes daylight saving time. Continental Portugal and Madeira use UTC+00:00, while the Azores use UTC–01:00. Daylight saving time is observed nationwide from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, when continental Portugal and Madeira advance one hour to UTC+01:00, and the Azores advances one hour to UTC+00:00.
Daylight saving time (DST), also known as summer time, is the practice of advancing clocks during part of the year, typically by one hour around spring and summer, so that daylight ends at a later time of the day. As of 2024, DST is observed in most of Europe, most of North America and parts of Africa and Asia around the Northern Hemisphere summer, and in parts of South America and Oceania around the Southern Hemisphere summer. It was also formerly observed in other areas.
Time in Transnistria, a breakaway state internationally recognised as being part of Moldova, is given by Eastern European Time. Daylight saving time, which moves one hour ahead to UTC+03:00 is observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
