In brief
- Order: year, month, day (the opposite of French)
- Year: number + 年 (nen)
- Month: month number + 月 (gatsu)
- Day: number + 日 (nichi), with irregular readings from the 1st to the 10th
- Example: 2026年7月2日 (nisen nijūroku-nen shichigatsu futsuka)
In Japanese, a date is constructed in the reverse order of French: the year comes first, followed by the month then the day. Three kanji are enough to structure any date, before tackling the few pronunciation irregularities to know.
The date format in Japanese
A Japanese date is written as year/month/day, for example 2026年7月2日 for July 2, 2026. The kanji 年 (nen), 月 (gatsu) and 日 (nichi) respectively mean “year”, “month” and “day”, and are placed directly after the corresponding number.
The months in Japanese
The months are formed simply by adding 月 (gatsu) to the month number. January is therefore literally “month 1”, February “month 2”, and so on.
| Month | Japanese | Romaji |
|---|---|---|
| January | 一月 | ichigatsu |
| February | 二月 | nigatsu |
| March | 三月 | sangatsu |
| April | 四月 | shigatsu |
| May | 五月 | gogatsu |
| June | 六月 | rokugatsu |
| July | 七月 | shichigatsu |
| August | 八月 | hachigatsu |
| September | 九月 | kugatsu |
| October | 十月 | jūgatsu |
| November | 十一月 | jūichigatsu |
| December | 十二月 | jūnigatsu |
April, July and September follow a particular reading of the number (shi, shichi, ku) rather than the expected reading (yon, nana, kyū). The other months use the standard reading of the numbers.
The days of the month
The days from 1 to 10, as well as the 20th, have irregular readings inherited from an old counting system. The other days simply combine the number and 日 (nichi or ka).
| Day | Japanese | Romaji |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 一日 | tsuitachi |
| 2 | 二日 | futsuka |
| 3 | 三日 | mikka |
| 10 | 十日 | tōka |
| 14 | 十四日 | jūyokka |
| 20 | 二十日 | hatsuka |
| 21 | 二十一日 | nijūichinichi |
From the 11th day onwards, only the 14th, 20th and 24th keep an irregular reading. All other days follow the pattern number + nichi, like 二十一日 (nijūichinichi) for the 21st.
The year
The year is expressed by indicating the number followed by 年 (nen), as in 2026年 (nisen nijūroku-nen). Japan mainly uses the Gregorian calendar in daily life, but also retains an imperial era system (Heisei, Reiwa) for certain administrative documents. For everyday use, the date in the Gregorian calendar covers the vast majority of situations.
Practical exercise
Test your understanding of dates in Japanese. To tackle other useful everyday basics, a complete Japanese course allows you to place this vocabulary in a broader grammatical context, alongside expressions of thanks in Japanese.
Question 1: What is the correct order of a date in Japanese?
Question 2: Which kanji means “month” in a date?
Question 3: How is 四月 (April) pronounced?
Question 4: How do you say the 20th day of the month?
Question 5: Which kanji accompanies the number to express a year?
Question 6: From which day do the readings of the days of the month become regular (excluding exceptions)?
Your score
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