Singapore Time Adjustments

Singapore has had several major time adjustments to accommodate both political and economic changes. The time adjustments varied between seven and a half hours to nine hours ahead of GMT. The changes were made in 1942, during the Japanese Occupation to align with Tokyo, in 1945, during the British Administration, and in 1982, to align with Peninsular Malaysia.

Timeline
1 Sep 1941 : Malaya is seven and a half hours ahead of GMT.
15 Feb 1942 : Malaya is nine hours ahead of GMT.
Tokyo time begins in Japanese-occupied Malaya with the objective of making Malaya part of the Japanese empire. Although all official appointments were made and kept according to this time,it was generally the practice to keep two times, the Tokyo time on one's wristwatch and the local time on one's clock at home, with Tokyo time pushed forward one and a half hours of local time.
6 Sep 1945 : Tokyo time ends. Time reverts to seven and a half hours ahead of GMT.
31 Dec 1981 : Singapore adjusts its clocks by 30 mins to synchronise with the time zone in Peninsular Malaysia to allow for more efficient business and travel arrangements to be made. The change was enacted by the 1981 Gazette notification by the President under section 52(2) of the Interpretation Act.
1 Jan 1982 : Singapore is 8 hrs ahead of GMT.
The time happens to synchronise with Hong Kong, Taiwan and Beijing and it is often mistakenly thought that this time adjustment was made for business reasons with these countries.

Singapore does not observe daylight saving time.



Author
Timothy Pwee



References
Chew. H. L. (1945). When Singapore was Syonan: Being a brief account of what transpired during the three and a half years Japanese occupation of Singapore. Singapore : G. H. Kiat.
(Call no.: RCLOS 959.51 CHE)

Singapore. (1981, December 31). Government Gazette-Subsidiary Legislation Supplement (Vol. 4, Notification 63, No 392). Singapore: Government Printing Office. 
(Call no.: RSING 348.5957 SGGSLS).

Wong Y. K. (1999, March 20). No scientific basis in beliefs. The Straits Times, Forum, p. 59.

(1945, September 7). The Straits Times. 



The information in this article is valid as at 1998 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources.  It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject.  Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Geography>>Geographical Areas and Countries
Time--Systems and standards--Singapore
Science and technology>>Astronomy>>Time and chronology



All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2004.