Time expressions

Date and Time in Japanese

In this lesson, you will learn basic Japanese words for dates, time, days of the week, months, seasons, and historical eras.

Writing dates and times in Japanese is often easy when you use kanji and numbers. However, the readings can be difficult because some words change pronunciation depending on the number or context.

Units of Time

First, let’s look at basic Japanese time units such as seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years.

To express a length of time, you often add 間かん after the unit.
To express “every ～,” add 毎まい before the word. For example, 毎日まいにち means “every day.”

The pronunciation of numbers often changes when they are combined with time units.

Japanese people do not usually say 1日間いちにちかん. Instead, we say 1日いちにちの間あいだ, 丸1日まるいちにち, or 1日中にちじゅう, depending on the nuance.

Common Date and Time Expressions

For many of these words, the leftmost kana reading is the most common in everyday conversation.

Some words have both casual and formal readings. For example, きょう is common in conversation, while ほんじつ is more formal and is often used in business, announcements, or written notices.

Days of the Week

Japanese days of the week are based on the sun, the moon, and the five classical elements.

曜日ようび [noun] day of the week

Months in Japanese

Months are simple in Japanese. You usually say the number plus 月がつ.

Be careful with April, July, and September: 4月 is しがつ, 7月 is しちがつ, and 9月 is くがつ.

Seasons

Japanese Historical Eras and Periods

Japanese history is often divided into historical periods such as the Jōmon period, Heian period, Edo period, and Reiwa era. The exact boundaries of older periods may differ depending on the source, so the years below should be treated as approximate.

For ancient and medieval Japanese periods, the exact start and end years can vary depending on how historians define each period. For language learners, it is usually enough to remember the names and general order first.

Summary

Japanese date and time expressions are easy to write with numbers and kanji, but the readings can be tricky.

• 秒びょう = second
• 分ふん / ぷん = minute
• 時じ = hour / o’clock
• 日にち / か = day
• 月がつ / げつ / つき = month / moon
• 年ねん / とし = year
• 曜日ようび = day of the week

The most important point is to learn the common readings first. After that, gradually learn the special readings used for dates, durations, and historical periods.