Japanese dates

Writing the date in Japanese also makes use of the system of numbers and counters. Thus the date is usually written as follows: yyyy年mm月dd日, where 年 is the counter for years, 月 for months and 日 for days. Thus 13 September, 2008 would be written as 2008年9月13日.

Sometimes, instead of the Western year being used, the year of the current Emperor's reign is used. Thus, 2008 could be written as Heisei (平成) 20, or to use the date format above: 平成20年9月13日. To arrive at a Western date, based on a era, you take the commencement date of the era (1989 in the case of Heisei), subtract 1 (as 1989 would be year 1 of Heisei, not year 0) and add the number of years of the era. Thus Heisei 20 = 1989 - 1 + 20 = 2008.

Days of the Week

With the Japanese names for the days of the week, counters are built into the names themselves, with each name being broken down into three parts - the first being the name of the day, the second indicating it is a weekday (you 曜) and the third,bi (日) being the counter for days. The days themselves are named after the Sun and Moon, as well as the five elements - fire, water, metal, earth and wood.

Weekday	Kanji	Japanese	Meaning
Monday	月曜日	getsuyoubi	Moon
Tuesday	火曜日	kayoubi	Fire / Mars
Wednesday	水曜日	suiyoubi	Water / Mercury
Thursday	木曜日	mokuyoubi	Wood/ Jupiter
Friday	金曜日	kinyoubi	Metal / Venus
Saturday	土曜日	doyoubi	Earth / Saturn
Sunday	日曜日	nichiyoubi	Sun

Months of the Year

Although there are Japanese names for each month of the year, in recent times, they have taken a far more pragmatic approach and simply named each month for its corresponding number. Thus January is ichigatsu (一月) or "first month". The table below sets out the new and old names for the months of the year.

Month	Kanji	Current Japanese	Old Japanese	Kanji	Meaning
January	一月	ichigatsu	mutsuki	睦月	Month of Harmony
February	二月	nigatsu	kisaragi	如月	Month of wearing extra layers of clothes
March	三月	sangatsu	yayoi	弥生	Month of growth
April	四月	shigatsu	uzuki	卯月	Month of unohana
May	五月	gogatsu	satsuki	早月	Month of planting rice sprouts
June	六月	rokugatsu	minazuki	水無月	Month of no water
July	七月	shichigatsu	fumizuki	文月	Month of literary
August	八月	hachigatsu	hazuki	葉月	Month of leaves
September	九月	kugatsu	nagatsuki	長月	Autumn long month
October	十月	juugatsu	kannazuki	神無月	Month of no gods
November	十一月	juuichigatsu	shimotsuki	霜月	Month of frost
December	十二月	juunigatsu	shiwasu	師走	Month of running priests