Free Japanese Era Converter: Reiwa, Heisei and Shōwa to Western Years

How the Japanese era converter works

There is one box, and it reads both ways. As a Japanese year converter, it turns 2025 into 令和7年 and R7, and as a Japanese era calculator, it turns H31 back into 2019. Type a Western year, such as 1989, or a full date written as 2019-05-01, 2019/5/1, 2019年5月1日 or May 1, 2019. Or type a Japanese era date: 令和7年, 令和元年5月1日, the short form R1.5.1, H31, Heisei 31 or Shōwa 50. You can leave out the macron, so Showa 50 reads as Shōwa 50, which is 1975. Kanji numerals work too, so 令和七年 reads as Reiwa 7, which is 2025.

Each result has its own copy button. You get the era year in kanji, with its reading in kana and romaji, and the short form used on Japanese forms, such as R7, H31 or S64. You get the date in kanji numerals, as in 令和元年五月一日, and the Western date in Japanese and in English, as in 2019年5月1日 and May 1, 2019. Then come the day of the week, the zodiac year and how old someone born that year turns this year. That makes it a Japanese date converter as well as a year converter.

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Years run from 1868 to 2100. Any year after this one is marked as a projection, because an era only ends when a new emperor takes the throne, and no one can say when that will be. On that basis, 2100 is Reiwa 82.

Before 1873, the converter works with years only. Japan used a lunisolar calendar until the end of 1872, so its months and days don't line up with Western dates before then. Meiji 6 began on January 1, 1873, and from that day the two calendars match.

Japanese eras from Meiji to Reiwa

Japan has had five eras since 1868, and each began with a new emperor: Meiji (明治, めいじ), Taishō (大正, たいしょう), Shōwa (昭和, しょうわ), Heisei (平成, へいせい) and Reiwa (令和, れいわ). Shōwa and Taishō are also written Showa and Taisho, without the macron. Meiji lasted 45 years, Taishō 15, Shōwa 64 and Heisei 31. Reiwa began on May 1, 2019, and 2026 is Reiwa 8. The table sets out all five with their dates.

Four years belong to two eras, because the era changes with the emperor, not on January 1.

• 1912 is Meiji 45 until July 29 and Taishō 1 from July 30.
• 1926 is Taishō 15 until December 24 and Shōwa 1 from December 25.
• 1989 is Shōwa 64 until January 7 and Heisei 1 from January 8.
• 2019 is Heisei 31 until April 30 and Reiwa 1 from May 1.

So Shōwa 1 lasted only seven days, December 25 to 31, and Shōwa 64 lasted seven too, January 1 to 7. The longest of the five eras began and ended with a single week.

How to convert Reiwa, Heisei and Shōwa years to Western years

Each era has one number to learn. To turn a Western year into a Reiwa year, subtract 2018, so 2026 is Reiwa 8. For Heisei subtract 1988, for Shōwa 1925, for Taishō 1911 and for Meiji 1867. To go back to the Western year, add the same number: Reiwa 7 is 2025, Heisei 2 is 1990 and Shōwa 50 is 1975. The sum only holds inside the era's own dates.

The first year of an era is written 元年 (gannen) instead of 1年. So May 1, 2019, is 令和元年5月1日, and January 8, 1989, is 平成元年1月8日. In the short form, those years are R1 and H1.

Era dates that don't exist

Some era dates look right but never happened. Heisei ended on April 30, 2019, so there was no 平成31年5月1日. Type it and the converter explains why and gives the real date, 令和元年5月1日. The Western date is the same. Only the era changed.

Shōwa 65 doesn't exist either. Shōwa ended on January 7, 1989, so Shōwa 65 would be 1990, a year the era never reached. 1990 is Heisei 2.

Where you'll still see Japanese era years

Japanese forms, bank papers and official letters still write dates in era years. Japanese calls this way of counting 和暦 (wareki), and the Western calendar 西暦 (seireki).

Forms also use a short form: the era's first letter, then the year. R7 is Reiwa 7, H31 is Heisei 31 and S64 is Shōwa 64. Meiji and Taishō are M and T. A full date in this style reads R1.5.1, which is May 1, 2019.

The converter also gives the zodiac year. 2026 is 丙午 (ひのえうま, hinoe-uma), the year of the Horse. Japan counts the zodiac year from January 1, so a baby born on January 2, 2026, is already a Horse.

Japanese year chart from 1868

The year-by-year chart starts at 1868 and puts each Western year beside its era year. It's quicker than the converter when you have a list of years to check, and it works as a Shōwa or Heisei year chart without any arithmetic.

For numbers rather than dates, the Japanese number converter writes any number in kanji, hiragana and romaji, and reads them back into digits.

Frequently asked questions