Days, Months, and Years in Japanese

Do you know how to write and say the days, months, and years in Japanese? In this article, we will examine in detail how to write and pronounce dates in the language. The writing is usually similar to that of Chinese, which can help you recognize both.

The days, months, and years can be written both with Arabic numerals (123) and with the ideograms of the Japanese language (一二三). There is no single rule for when to use each of these forms; they usually coexist on different occasions. Of course, when pronouncing them, it is recommended to use the common reading in Japanese.

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How are the days of the week said in Japanese?

Although the focus of this article is on days, months, and years, we should start by looking at the days of the week in Japanese (from Monday to Sunday), which are practically the names of the planets or the five elements.

Sunday	日曜日	nichiyoubi
Monday	月曜日	getsuyoubi
Tuesday	火曜日	kayoubi
Wednesday	水曜日	suiyoubi
Thursday	木曜日	mokuyoubi
Friday	金曜日	kinyoubi
Saturday	土曜日	doyoubi

How are the days of the month said in Japanese?

The days of the month are accompanied by an ideogram that is pronounced nichi [日], which means sun and day. The same character can also be read ka, depending on the date, a kind of ON or KUN split. The table below explains the ways to pronounce the days of the month in Japanese.

We provide below two readings; both are correct, but they are used differently. When referring to a specific day of a month, we usually use the special reading in bold.

Day	Romaji	Kanji	Special romaji
1	ichi nichi	一日	tsuitachi
2	ni nichi	二日	futsuka
3	san nichi	三日	mikka
4	yon nichi	四日	yokka
5	go nichi	五日	itsuka
6	roku nichi	六日	muika
7	nana nichi	七日	nanoka
8	hachi nichi	八日	youka
9	kyuu nichi	九日	kokonoka
10	juu nichi	十日	tooka
11	juu ichi nichi	十一日
12	juu ni nichi	十二日
13	juu san nichi	十三日
14	juu yon nichi	十四日	juu yokka
15	juu go nichi	十五日
16	juu roku nichi	十六日
17	juu shichi nichi	十七日
18	juu hachi nichi	十八日
19	juu ku nichi	十九日
20	ni juu nichi	二十日	hatsuka
21	ni juu ichi nichi	二十一日
22	ni juu ni nichi	二十二日
23	ni juu san nichi	二十三日
24	ni juu yon nichi	二十四日	ni juu yokka
25	ni juu go nichi	二十五日
26	ni juu roku nichi	二十六日
27	ni juu shichi nichi	二十七日
28	ni juu hachi nichi	二十八日
29	ni juu ku nichi	二十九日
30	san juu nichi	三十日
31	san juu ichi nichi	三十一日

How are the months said in Japanese?

In everyday Japanese, months do not have unique names like January or February. They usually say the number followed by the ideogram tsuki (月), which means moon (tsuki) and month (gatsu). It may seem strange to say Month 1 Month 2 Month 3, but when you think about it, it is much simpler and easier.

• 1月 (Ichigatsu) - January
• 2月 (Nigatsu) - February
• 3月 (Sangatsu) - March
• 4月 (Shigatsu) - April
• 5月 (Gogatsu) - May
• 6月 (Rokugatsu) - June
• 7月 (Shichigatsu) - July
• 8月 (Hachigatsu) - August
• 9月 (Kugatsu) - September
• 10月 (Jūgatsu) - October
• 11月 (Jūichigatsu) - November
• 12月 (Jūnigatsu) - December

April stays shigatsu, July stays shichigatsu, and September stays kugatsu. Those three readings do not switch to yon, nana, or kyuu. For weather and season words that sit next to these months, see seasons, weather, and climate in Japanese.

The Japanese also have an old traditional way of saying the months that is rarely used. Nowadays, it is usually used in horoscopes, lunar calendars, and other traditional things.

This calendar is called wafuu getsumei [和風月名], which literally means names of the months in the Japanese style.

月	Kanji	Romaji
1月	睦月	mutsuki
2月	如月	kisaragi
3月	弥生	yayoi
4月	卯月	uzuki
5月	皐月	satsuki
6月	水無月	minazuki
7月	文月	fumizuki
8月	葉月	hazuki
9月	長月	nagatsuki
10月	神無月	kannazuki
11月	霜月	shimotsuki
12月	師走	shiwasu

Note that not all months in this traditional list have the ideogram for moon.

How is the year said in the Japanese language?

The year works the same way as the day and month: the number accompanied by the ideogram "nen" [年], which literally means year. See an example below of how to say "April 1, 2005":

• 2005年4月1日 (nisen go nen / shigatsu / tsuitachi) 二千五年 四月 一日

We notice that the year comes first, then the month, and finally the day. If we know all the numbers in Japanese, we can easily write the days, months, and years in the language. Official papers may also ask for era years such as Heisei or Reiwa; that system is explained in the Japanese imperial calendar. Form fields such as 生年月日 are covered in how to fill dates of birth in Japanese.

Words related to the Calendar in Japanese

We cannot talk about years, days, months, and dates without mentioning calendars and other related words such as leap year in Japanese, lunar calendar, and other words related to dates. Make good use of the vocabulary list below:

• karendaa (カレンダー) - Calendar
• koyomi (暦) - Calendar
• taiyoureki (太陽暦) - Solar calendar
• taiinreki (太陰暦) - Lunar calendar
• heinen (平年) - Common year
• uruudoshi (閏年) - Leap year
• seireki (西暦) - Western calendar / Common Era

I hope you enjoyed this simple article. Once you know the numbers and the special day readings, writing a Japanese date is mainly a matter of putting the year first, then the month, then the day.