Japanese Era Converter

【Please read first】 Eras before Meiji are not included. Until Meiji 5, Japan used a lunisolar calendar whose year did not line up with the Western one, so no simple offset can convert it. There is no rokuyo, no nine-star astrology, and no automatic age calculation. ────────── 📅 Japanese Era Converter - read the year on a Japanese document Japanese dates are often written by era, not by Western year. A form says Showa 58. A coin is stamped Heisei 12. A bottle of sake or whisky carries a year you cannot read. An old photograph is dated Taisho 9. Pick the era, type the number, and this app gives you the Western year. It works the other way round too. 【Meiji, Taisho, Showa, Heisei, Reiwa】 Meiji ran to year 45, Taisho to 15, Showa to 64, Heisei to 31. The app knows where each one stops, so if you enter something that never existed, such as Meiji 46, it tells you so instead of answering anyway. 【A year when the era changed holds two Japanese years】 This is the heart of the app. In 1989, up to 7 January it was Showa 64, and from 8 January it was Heisei 1. A document that gives only the year cannot tell you which. So the app does not choose one. It shows both, with the dates. 1912 - Meiji 45 (1 Jan to 29 Jul) / Taisho 1 (30 Jul to 31 Dec) 1926 - Taisho 15 (1 Jan to 24 Dec) / Showa 1 (25 Dec to 31 Dec) 1989 - Showa 64 (1 Jan to 7 Jan) / Heisei 1 (8 Jan to 31 Dec) 2019 - Heisei 31 (1 Jan to 30 Apr) / Reiwa 1 (1 May to 31 Dec) 【Years that do not exist show a dash】 There is no answer to "what is Showa 58 in Meiji". The app shows a dash rather than inventing a number. 【The zodiac year comes with it】 2026 is Hinoe-uma, the Fire Horse. 1983 is Mizunoto-i, the Water Boar. Ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches combine into a cycle of sixty years. Turning sixty in Japan is called kanreki, returning to the calendar, because that is when your own stem and branch come round again. 【Year by year】 See every year of the era you have selected, with its Western year and zodiac sign. Sixty-four rows for Showa, forty-five for Meiji. 【Common years】 This year, Reiwa 1, Heisei 1, Showa 1, Taisho 1, Meiji 1, 1945, 1964 and 2000, one tap each. 【A history of the last five】 Tap to bring back a year you looked up. History is kept on the device only and can be cleared at any time. 【Notes worth knowing】 Showa 64 lasted only seven days. The day after 2 December of Meiji 5 was 1 January of Meiji 6. Births fell more than 25 percent in the Fire Horse year of 1966. Reiwa is the first era name taken from Japanese rather than Chinese literature. 【Why it stops at Meiji】 Japan used a lunisolar calendar until Meiji 5 (1872). December of Meiji 5 lasted two days: the day after the 2nd was 1 January of Meiji 6. Covering earlier eras would mean presenting a table that is quietly wrong about where each year begins and ends, so they are left out. 【Works offline, no account required】 Everything is calculated on the device. Nothing is sent anywhere. ────────── NISAKE GAME makes small tools that each do one thing. Era start and end dates follow the official record.