When talking about days of the month in Japanese some numbers have special forms, and a mixture of native Japanese and Sino-Japanese numbers are used.
Dates are written year, month, day, possibly followed by the day of the week. For example, today’s date in Japanese is 2026年08月24日 (24/08/2026). Japanese or Western numerals can be used. Days of the week are often abbreviated to the first character, e.g. 水 = 水曜日 (Wednesday).
For years you can use the Gregorian calendar, e.g. 2023, 2022, etc. The Japanese era names (元号, gengō) are also used, such as 明治 (Meiji) = 1868-1912, 大正 (Taishō) = 1912-1926, 昭和 (Shōwa) = 1926-1989, 平成 (Heisei) = 1989-2019, 令和 (Reiwa) = 2019-present. For example, 2023 = 令和05年.
More details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_era_name
https://webconversiononline.com/date-conversion.aspx
https://www.sljfaq.org/cgi/date.cgi
| Day | 日本語 (Japanese) |
|---|---|
| 1st | 一日, (ついたち, tsuitachi) |
| 2nd | 二日, (ふつか, futsuka) |
| 3rd | 三日, (みっか, mikka) |
| 4th | 四日, (よっか, yokka) |
| 5th | 五日, (いつか, itsuka) |
| 6th | 六日, (むいか, muika) |
| 7th | 七日, (なのか, nanoka) |
| 8th | 八日, (ようか, yōka) |
| 9th | 九日, (ここのか, kokonoka) |
| 10th | 十日, (とおか, tōka) |
| 11th | 十一日, (じゅういちにち, jūichi-nichi) |
| 12th | 十二日, (じゅうににち, jūni-nichi) |
| 13th | 十三日, (じゅうさんにち, jūsan-nichi) |
| 14th | 十四日, (じゅうよっか, jūyokka) |
| 15th | 十五日, (じゅうごにち, jūgo-nichi) |
| 16th | 十六日, (じゅうろくにち, jūroku-nichi) |
| 17th | 十七日, (じゅうしちにち, jūshichi-nichi) |
| 18th | 十八日, (じゅうはちにち, jūhachi-nichi) |
| 19th | 十九日, (じゅうくにち, jūku-nichi) |
| 20th | 二十日, (はつか, hatsuka) |
| 21st | 二十一日, (にじゅういちにち, nijūichi-nichi) |
| 22nd | 二十二日, (にじゅうににち, nijūni-nichi) |
| 23rd | 二十三日, (にじゅうさんにち, nijūsan-nichi) |
| 24th | 二十四日, (にじゅうよっか, nijūyokka) |
| 25th | 二十五日, (にじゅうごにち, nijūgo-nichi) |
| 26th | 二十六日, (にじゅうろくにち, nijūroku-nichi) |
| 27th | 二十七日, (にじゅうしちにち, nijūshichi-nichi) |
| 28th | 二十八日, (にじゅうはちにち, nijūhachi-nichi) |
| 29th | 二十九日, (にじゅうくにち, nijūku-nichi) |
| 30th | 三十日, (さんじゅうにち, sanjū-nichi) |
| 31st | 三十一日, (さんじゅういちにち, sanjūichi-nichi) |
[top]
| 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 (sichigatsu) |
| August | 八月 (hachigatsu) |
| September | 九月 (kugatsu) |
| October | 十月 (jūgatsu) |
| November | 十一月 (jūichigatsu) |
| December | 十二月 (jūnigatsu) |
[top]
| Monday | 月曜日 (getsuyōbi) |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 火曜日 (kayōbi) |
| Wednesday | 水曜日 (suiyōbi) |
| Thursday | 木曜日 (mokuyōbi) |
| Friday | 金曜日 (kinyōbi) |
| Saturday | 土曜日 (doyōbi) |
| Sunday | 日曜日 (nichiyōbi) |
[top]
Hear how to talk about dates in Japanese:
Information about days of the month in Japanese
https://www.kanpai-japan.com/learn-japanese/how-to-write-the-date-in-japanese
https://www.nihongomaster.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-writing-dates-in-japanese
https://thetruejapan.com/days-of-the-month-in-japanese/
https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/month-days.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_calendar
If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.
Introduction to Japanese | Hiragana | Katakana | Kanji | Rōmaji | Phrases (Useful) | Phrases (Silly) | Numbers | Colours | Time | Dates | Family words | Tower of Babel | Articles | Links | Learning materials
Irish, Japanese, Korean, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh
Useful phrases | Silly phrases | Numbers | Numerals | Colours | Telling the time | Dates | Weather words | Family words | Terms of endearment | Language names | Country names | Idioms | Proverbs | Tongue twisters | Signs | Compass directions | UDHR | Tower of Babel | Songs | Omniglot | Seven dwarfs | Zodiac signs | Computer parts | Compass directions | Animal sounds
[top]
You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways.
If you find all the adverts annoying, there is now an Ad-free version of Omniglot which you can access for a small monthly or annual donation.
Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com
[top]
