Date and time notation in Japan

Date and time notation in Japan has historically followed the Japanese calendar and the nengō system of counting years.

At the beginning of the Meiji period, Japan switched to the Gregorian calendar on Wednesday, 1 January 1873, but for much domestic and regional government paperwork, the Japanese year is retained.

Japanese people and businesses have also adopted various conventions in accordance with their use of kanji, the widespread use of passenger trains, and other aspects of daily life.

For example, the above date using the imperial calendar is written as: 令和5年12月31日 (日); a more direct translation might be: Reiwa year 5, Dec 31 (Sun).

Using the Japanese notation, times are written as "8時42分", with the characters for "hour" and "minute" (optionally also 秒 for "seconds") added after the numerals.

Japanese 10 yen coin . The date beneath the "10" reads 平成 七年 Heisei year 7 , or the year 1995.
Information board at Shibuya Station , Tokyo , showing train listings and departure times. The current time is at top right in orange.