Convert between Gregorian years and Japanese eras — Reiwa, Heisei, Shōwa, Taishō, Meiji — and see the current Reiwa year at a glance.
Quick math: Reiwa year = Gregorian year − 2018, Heisei year = Gregorian year − 1988, Shōwa year = Gregorian year − 1925.
Japan uses era names (gengō) alongside the Gregorian calendar. A new era begins when an emperor accedes, and that year is year one (gannen).
The modern eras: Meiji (1868–1912) · Taishō (1912–1926) · Shōwa (1926–1989) · Heisei (1989–2019) · Reiwa (2019– ).
The 1979 Era Name Act fixed one era per emperor. Before that, eras were changed mid-reign after disasters or auspicious events.
Reiwa converts as Gregorian = Reiwa + 2018. Reiwa 6 is 2024.
Heisei converts as Gregorian = Heisei + 1988. Heisei 31 is 2019.
Shōwa converts as Gregorian = Shōwa + 1925. Shōwa 64 is 1989.
Transition years contain two eras. 2019 was Heisei 31 through 30 April and Reiwa 1 from 1 May. You need the date, not just the year.
1989 works the same way — Shōwa 64 until 7 January, Heisei 1 from the 8th. Which means Shōwa 64 lasted only a week.
Official documents — Japanese government paperwork overwhelmingly uses era years. Visa applications, residence cards, resident records.
Driving licences and passports — validity dates in era years.
Contracts and property registration.
Medical and academic records — dates of birth frequently recorded in era years.
Filling in a Japanese form and needing to write your date of birth as a Shōwa or Heisei year is a genuinely common situation.
The first year of an era is written 元年 (gannen) rather than "1". It is 令和元年, not 令和1年.
Systems generally accept 1 as input, but handwritten official documents use 元年.
This mismatch causes real data-processing errors, in systems that cannot parse 元 as a number.
Abbreviations use the Roman initial — M · T · S · H · R. A Japanese document reading "S45.3.2" means 2 March, Shōwa 45.
The change to Reiwa was called Japan's Y2K. Countless systems handle era years, and the new era name was announced only a month beforehand, on 1 April 2019.
Until then, developers had to prepare systems for an era whose name they did not know.
There was also the risk that the new initial would collide with an existing abbreviation. Reiwa (R) fortunately did not.
The episode revived arguments for using only Gregorian years, but era names are bound up with cultural identity and remain in use.
Using the browser's Intl Japanese calendar. Transition dates are in the data, so overlapping years are split correctly by date.
No external API is called and nothing is transmitted.
Very old browsers predating 2019 may not know Reiwa. Update if the output looks wrong.
Japan has been in the Reiwa (令和) era since May 2019.
Each era's start year plus the era year gives the Gregorian year; eras change mid-year, so a Gregorian year can span two eras.
Eras change on the exact day of an imperial succession, not on January 1, so the calendar year the change happens in contains dates from both the old and new era.
What this tool bases its numbers on, and how far those numbers go.
Gregorian = era year + the era's base: Reiwa + 2018, Heisei + 1988, Shōwa + 1925, Taishō + 1911, Meiji + 1867. The inverse subtracts the same base. Era year 1 is «gannen», the year of accession.Reiwa 8 = 8 + 2018 = 2026. Going the other way, 1989 is both Shōwa 64 (to 7 January) and Heisei 1 (from 8 January).