World Calendars
Japanese era date today
Japan counts years by the reign of its emperor, starting again at year 1 with each new era. The present era, Reiwa, began on 1 May 2019, when Emperor Naruhito took the throne.
Reiwa 8, 11 November
令和8年11月11日
- In the Gregorian calendar
- Wednesday 11 November 2026
- This day began
- At midnight, as Wednesday 11 November 2026 begins
- This day ends
- At midnight, as Thursday 12 November 2026 begins
- Year 2026 began
- Thursday 1 January 2026
- Next new year
- Friday 1 January 2027 (in 51 days)
- This year has
- 365 days in 12 months
- Reiwa era began
- 1 May 2019
- Who uses it
- Japan, especially on official papers, alongside Gregorian years
- How it works
- Gregorian months and days, with years counted within the emperor's era
- Years count from
- 1 May 2019 for Reiwa; add 2018 to get the Gregorian year
- Unusual detail
- Since 1868 each emperor has one era; before that, eras changed more often
Next holidays in this calendar
51 days
1 January 2027 · Gregorian, Japanese era, Thai solar (Buddhist era), Republic of China (Minguo), Juche, Holocene (Human Era), Discordian, Revised Julian, Soviet work week
How Japanese era years work
A year is written with two parts, the era name and the year number within the era. The first year of an era is called gannen (元年), and later years are numbered with nen (年). An era's first year runs from the day the emperor accedes to 31 December, and later years follow the Gregorian calendar. The year number therefore changes on 1 January and also on the day a new era begins. Months are numbered, from ichigatsu (一月, January) to jūnigatsu (十二月, December).
| Era | First day | Gregorian year |
|---|---|---|
| Meiji (M) | 23 October 1868 | era year + 1867 |
| Taishō (T) | 30 July 1912 | era year + 1911 |
| Shōwa (S) | 25 December 1926 | era year + 1925 |
| Heisei (H) | 8 January 1989 | era year + 1988 |
| Reiwa (R) | 1 May 2019 | era year + 2018 |
The letters are common abbreviations, so S55 is Shōwa 55 (1980) and H22 is Heisei 22 (2010). Emperor Shōwa died on 7 January 1989, the last day of Shōwa 64, and the next day was Heisei 1. Government offices usually require era years on official papers. A third count, the imperial year (kōki), treats 660 BC as year 1. It was first used in the official calendar in 1873 and today appears rarely, mostly in some judicial contexts.
Variants and the method used here
This site shows the Gregorian day and month with the era and year from the date library built into your browser (ICU). From Taishō onward its era start dates match the table above, including the change from Heisei 31 on 30 April 2019 to Reiwa 1 on 1 May 2019.
Earlier dates need care. Before 1 January 1873 Japan used a lunisolar calendar, and its years began on a different day from the Gregorian year. The lunisolar year Meiji 5, for example, ran from 9 February to 31 December 1872, while this page counts Meiji 5 from 1 January 1872. The library also starts Meiji on 8 September 1868, earlier than the 23 October 1868 given in the table. Before 645, when Taika, the first era, began, there are no era names, so this page shows no date.
A short history
The first era name, Taika (大化), was adopted in 645 under Emperor Kōtoku and marked the Taika reform. Era names have been in use since 701. Before 1868 a new name could be chosen several times within one emperor's reign. On 23 October 1868 Japan adopted the rule of one era per reign (issei ichigen), and the Era Name Law of 1979 put it into law.
Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar on 1 January 1873 and kept the era years. Emperor Akihito abdicated on 30 April 2019, the last day of Heisei. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga had announced the new name, Reiwa (令和), on 1 April 2019. It comes from the headnote to a group of 32 poems about a plum-blossom gathering in the Man'yōshū, an eighth-century poetry anthology, and was the first era name taken from Japanese literature instead of Chinese. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained it as "beautiful harmony". Naruhito became the 126th Emperor on 1 May 2019, the first day of Reiwa.
Sources
How this site calculates the date: Gregorian months and days with the year of the Japanese imperial era (nengō).