What word describes the concept of worldwide time zones?

Question

The world is covered in the necessary evil known in English as "time zones".

Given that, historically, it originated in England (some 300 or so years ago), the concept of a time zone was probably not brought into Japan for quite some time.

That said, RomajiDesu suggests 時間帯 for "time zone". However, given the English-based origin of the term, I tend to think that this may not properly refer to the same concept.

What is the proper Japanese term for a time zone? Is it 時間帯｛じかんたい｝? Is タイムゾーン is more appropriate? Or is there another term I should use?

Answer 1

Both 時間帯 and タイムゾーン work, and both are very common ways to speak about time zones. But one thing you should know is that 時間帯 also describes the specific period of time in a day. Say, 朝の時間帯 means "the morning time" and used in this way it doesn't describes time zones.

In short, if it is clear your sentence is talking about time zones, you can use either, but the context is ambiguous, I recommend that you use タイムゾーン.