HesapHanem

Japanese Era (Nengō) Converter

Enter a Gregorian year (and optional month and day) to find the Japanese era.

Result

令和 (Reiwa)
Reiwa 1
令和元年

How it is calculated

The tool compares your date with the start date of each era and picks the latest era that has already begun. The start dates built in are: Meiji 1868-10-23, Taishō 1912-07-30, Shōwa 1926-12-25, Heisei 1989-01-08 and Reiwa 2019-05-01. The era year is era year = Gregorian year − era start year + 1, and year 1 is written as 元年 (gannen) in the Japanese form.

Month and day are optional; if you leave them out, the tool assumes 1 January. A date that does not exist, such as 31 February, gives no result. That matters in a changeover year such as 1989 or 2019, where the two eras share the same Gregorian year. Dates before Meiji (23 October 1868) have no result. The tool is a lookup of these fixed boundaries, not a full calendar converter.

Worked example

Enter 1 May 2019. The Reiwa era started on 2019-05-01, and the date is not earlier than that, so the era is Reiwa. The era year is 2019 − 2019 + 1 = 1, so the tool shows Reiwa 1, written in Japanese as 令和元年. The day before, 30 April 2019, is still Heisei, in its year 31 (2019 − 1989 + 1). A date in March 2024 gives Reiwa 6 in the same way.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering only the year for a changeover year. With no month and day the tool assumes 1 January, so 2019 alone gives Heisei 31, and 1989 alone gives Shōwa 64, even if your real date falls after the change.
  • Counting the era year from 0. The first year of an era is year 1 (元年), not year 0, which is why the formula adds 1.
  • Treating a changeover year as belonging to a single era. 1912, 1926, 1989 and 2019 are each split between two eras, and only the full date tells you which one applies.
  • Entering a date before 23 October 1868 and expecting an earlier era. The tool only covers Meiji onward and returns nothing for earlier dates.
  • Putting the era year (such as 6) in the year box. The field wants the Gregorian year, for example 2024.

About this calculator

Japan has used the nengō (元号) system for centuries, naming eras after the reigning emperor and counting years from 1 within that era — so 2024 in the Gregorian calendar is Reiwa 6 (令和6年), following Heisei (1989–2019) and Shōwa (1926–1989) before it. Each era begins on the date of imperial succession, so the conversion depends not just on the year but sometimes on the month and day too, especially for the first and last year of an era.

This calculator takes a Gregorian date and returns the corresponding Japanese era name and era year. Genealogists and family historians researching Japanese records, translators and administrative staff processing Japanese official documents such as koseki (family registers), driver's licenses, and pension paperwork — which are commonly dated in the era format rather than the Gregorian year — rely on this conversion to read and fill out such documents correctly.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    Add the month and day whenever the year is a changeover year. Entering 1989 alone gives Shōwa 64, because the tool assumes 1 January, but 8 January 1989 gives Heisei 1 and 7 January 1989 still gives Shōwa 64. Today's date, 14 June 2026, is Reiwa 8. Japanese documents print the era year, so check the full date on the paper. Which kind of record are you reading?

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