In Japanese you mention the biggest unit first and then move onto a smaller unit. So if you want to say a date in full, you need to say it in the order of yyyy年MM月DD日
Stating the Year
In English, the year 2021 is pronounced as “twenty twenty-one” but in Japanese a 4-digit dominical year is read as an ordinary number. So 2021 is にせんにじゅういち by the word year, 年（ねん）.
If you need help reading the four digits, please watch these videos.
Many official, domestic documents prefer the year to be written with the name of the imperial era. 2021 is the third year of the 令和 era, so it can be written 令和3年. 令和 can be shortened with the English letter “R.”
I will list the beginning and ending year of the last 5 eras.
- 令和 : 1 May 2019 – (ongoing)
- 平成： 7 Jan 1989 – 30 Apr 2019
- 昭和： 25 Dec 1926 – 6 Jan 1989
- 大正： 30 Jul 1912 – 24 Dec1926
- 明治： 8 Sep 1868 – 29 Jul 1912
Name of each Month
It is basically the number + 月 but you need to be careful with April, July and September.
| English | Kanji | Hiragana |
|---|---|---|
| January | 一月 | いちがつ |
| February | 二月 | にがつ |
| March | 三月 | さんがつ |
| April | 四月 | しがつ |
| May | 五月 | ごがつ |
| June | 六月 | ろくがつ |
| July | 七月 | しちがつ/なながつ |
| August | 八月 | はちがつ |
| September | 九月 | くがつ |
| October | 十月 | じゅうがつ |
| November | 十一月 | じゅういちがつ |
| December | 十二月 | じゅうにがつ |
Name of each Day
It is basically the number + 日 but 1st to 10th, 14th, 20th and 24th all end in 日. You also need to be careful with 17th, 19th, 27th and 29th.
| Date | Kanji | Hiragana |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 一日 | ついたち |
| 2nd | 二日 | ふつか |
| 3rd | 三日 | みっか |
| 4th | 四日 | よっか |
| 5th | 五日 | いつか |
| 6th | 六日 | むいか |
| 7th | 七日 | なのか |
| 8th | 八日 | ようか |
| 9th | 九日 | ここのか |
| 10th | 十日 | とおか |
| 11th | 十一日 | じゅういちにち |
| 12th | 十二日 | じゅうににち |
| 13th | 十三日 | じゅうさんにち |
| 14th | 十四日 | じゅうよっか |
| 15th | 十五日 | じゅうごにち |
| 16th | 十六日 | じゅうろくにち |
| 17th | 十七日 | じゅうしちにち |
| 18th | 十八日 | じゅうはちにち |
| 19th | 十九日 | じゅうくにち |
| 20th | 二十日 | はつか |
| 21st | 二十一日 | にじゅういちにち |
| 22nd | 二十二日 | にじゅうににち |
| 23rd | 二十三日 | にじゅうさんにち |
| 24th | 二十四日 | にじゅうよっか |
| 25th | 二十五日 | にじゅうごにち |
| 26th | 二十六日 | にじゅうろくにち |
| 27th | 二十七日 | にじゅうしちにち |
| 28th | 二十八日 | にじゅうはちにち |
| 29th | 二十九日 | にじゅうくにち |
| 30th | 三十日 | さんじゅうにち |
| 31st | 三十一日 | さんじゅういちにち |
Suggested Activities
Say all important days in your life in Japanese.
