What order does a Japanese date use?

Japanese writes dates largest unit first: year, then month, then day, as 〇〇年〇月〇日. For example 2024年3月9日 is read nisen-nijuyo-nen sangatsu kokonoka. This tool always outputs year-month-day in kanji.

How do Japanese imperial eras work?

Each emperor's reign defines an era. The current era Reiwa (令和) began on 1 May 2019, preceded by Heisei (平成) from 1989, Showa (昭和) from 1926, Taisho (大正) and Meiji (明治). An era year is the Gregorian year minus the era start year plus one.

Why is the first year written 元年 instead of 一年?

The opening year of every era is called gannen and written 元年, not 一年. So the year Reiwa began is 令和元年, and the year after is 令和二年. The tool applies this rule automatically.

Which eras are supported?

Era notation covers Meiji (from 1868) through Reiwa. Dates straddling an era change are assigned to the era in effect on that exact day, since transitions occur mid-year. Dates before Meiji fall back to a notice.

Are months and days spelled with special readings?

The output uses the kanji numeral plus 月 for months and plus 日 for days, the standard written form. Spoken Japanese uses some irregular day readings such as 一日 (tsuitachi), but the written kanji shown here is unambiguous.

Japanese Date in Words

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The Japanese date in words tool renders a calendar date as Japanese kanji prose. Japanese dates run from the largest unit to the smallest — year, month, day — and can be written either with ordinary Gregorian years or with the imperial era system still used on official documents, coins and many forms.

How it works

The date is parsed into year, month and day. In Gregorian mode the year is spelled as a grouped kanji numeral, so 2024 becomes 二千二十四, followed by 年, the month numeral followed by 月, and the day numeral followed by 日. In era mode the tool finds the imperial era in effect on that exact day from a table of start dates — Reiwa from 1 May 2019, Heisei from 8 January 1989, Showa from 25 December 1926, and earlier — then computes the era year as the Gregorian year minus the era’s starting year plus one. The first year of any era is written 元年 (gannen) rather than 一年.

Notes and example

For 2024-03-09 in Gregorian mode the result is 二千二十四年三月九日. The same date in era mode becomes 令和六年三月九日, since 2024 is the sixth year of Reiwa. Because eras change mid-year, the conversion is based on the full date, not just the year — a day in early 2019 is still Heisei, while a day after 1 May 2019 is Reiwa. Era notation is available from Meiji (1868) onward. Everything is computed locally in your browser.