How to Say and Count the Days of the Week, Months, Years in Japanese

When making plans in Japan or in Japanese, knowing how to say the days of the week, dates, months, as well as how to refer to days or weeks later in Japanese is important! We cover all of the above and more in this article! 

Table of Contents

1. Days of the Week in Japanese
   1. How to Refer to Days Recently Past or in the Future
   2. How to Count Weeks
   3. How to Refer to Prior or Future Weeks
2. Months in Japanese
   1. How to Count Months
   2. How to Refer to Prior or Future Months
   3. How to say Dates in Japanese
3. Year in Japanese
   1. How to Count Years
   2. How to Refer to Prior or Future Years
4. Put it all together

Days of the Week in Japanese

Let’s start with the days of the weeks. 

The days of the week are as follows:

As you can see from the chart, each day correlates with an element or planet. 

Other words you should know when talking about the week in Japanese are:

Weekday: 平日 heijitsu

Weekend: 週末 shuumatsu

Public Holiday: 祝日 shukujitsu

Day off: 休日 kyuujitsu

How to Refer to Days Recently Past or in the Future

Today: 今日 kyou

Tomorrow: 明日 ashita

Day after tomorrow: 明後日 asatte

Yesterday: 昨日 kinou (more casual) or sakujitsu (more formal)

Day before yesterday: 一昨日 ototoi (more commonly used) or issakujitsu (less used)

How to Count Weeks

When counting weeks, we use the counter 週間 (shuukan)

one week: 一週間 isshuukan

two weeks: 二週間 nishuukan

three weeks: 三週間 sanshuukan

A week and a half: 一週間半 isshuukan-han (as “半 han” means half)

How to Refer to Prior or Future Weeks

When making plans or telling someone about something you did, it’s important to be able to refer to both the past and future. 

This week: 今週 konshuu 

Next week: 来週 raishuu

The week after next: 再来週 saraishuu

Last week: 先週 senshuu

The week before last: 先々週 sensenshuu or 二週間前 nishuukanmae (two weeks ago)

How to use these phrases

When talking about a particular day of the week in a certain week, you can say for example:

This Thursday: 今週の木曜日 konshuu no mokuyoubi

Next Monday: 来週の月曜日 raishuu no getsuyoubi

Note: Please be careful when referring to Sunday, as in Japan it’s considered the start of the week. So if someone says “今週の日曜日 this Sunday” or “来週の日曜日 next Sunday”, you might want to double-check which day they’re talking about, as “this Sunday” may be the passed Sunday, and “next Sunday” may mean the upcoming Sunday. 

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Months in Japanese

Here are the months in Japanese:

Unlike the days of the weeks, the months are simply based on their number order. Easy right?

How to Count Months

When counting months, we use the counter ヶ月 (kagetsu).

One month: 一ヶ月 ikkagetsu

Two months: 二ヶ月 nikagetsu

Three months: 三ヵ月 sankagetsu

A month and a half: 一ヶ月半 ikkagetsu-han

How to Refer to Prior or Future Months

The format is very similar to that of the weeks version mentioned above, with many of the same prefixes. 

This month: 今月 kongetsu 

Next month: 来月 raigetsu

The week after next: 再来月 saraigetsu

Last month: 先月 sengetsu

The month before last: 先々月 sensengetsu or 二ヶ月前 nikagetsumae (two months ago)

How to say Dates in Japanese

And here’s where it gets a little more complex.

Unfortunately there’s no fixed suffix for all the days of the month. 

We start off with tsuitachi for the first. From the second to 10th, we use -ka (which means day) as the suffix. 

From the eleventh to nineteenth, we count normally adding the suffix -nichi which also means day.

EXCEPT look out for the fourteenth, because it’s the only one with the -ka suffix. The twentieth is also special in that it has a special name rather than being referred to how 20 is usually said. 

From the 21st to 29th, it follows the usual way you count these numbers with the suffix -nichi for day. Except again, watch out for the 24th as it’s the odd one out.

And the last two follow the pattern. 

Year in Japanese

We simply read the year as the number. 

For example, 2023 is 2023年 (にせんにじゅうさんねん nisen nijyuu san nen) with 年 (nen) meaning year.

There’s also the traditional Japanese calendar system based on an emperor’s rule called gengo or nengo. For example, 2023 is 令和5年 (Reiwa go nen) or the 5th year of the Reiwa Emperor.

You can read more about nengo here. 

How to Count Years

We count years using the suffix 年 (nen).

One year: 1年 ichinen

Two years: 2年 ninen

Three years: 3年 sannen

A year and a half: 1年半 ichinen-han

How to Refer to Prior or Future Years

This year: 今年 kotoshi

Next year: 来年 rainen

The year after next: 再来年 sarainen

Last year: 去年 kyonen or 昨年 sakunen (more formal)

The year before last: 一昨年 ototoshi or issakunen (more formal, less used)

Put it All Together

Day and Date

So if you want to write out a specific day of a particular year, down to what day of the week it is, you’d write:

2023年1月1日 日曜日

nisen nijyuusan nen ichigatsu tsuitachi nichiyoubi

January 1st, 2023 Sunday

Birthday

Or if you’re talking about your birthday, you’d say

生年月日は 1990年1月1日 です。

Seinengappi wa sen kyuuhyaku kyuujyuu nen ichigatsu tsuitachi desu.

My birthday is January 1st, 1990.

For more casual situations and conversations, you can use 誕生日 (tanjyoubi) instead of 生年月日 (seinengappi).

We hope this article laid out the basics of days, months and years in Japanese! 

For more about the general Japanese calendar, such as public holidays, the Japanese traditional year system, and other interesting Japanese calendar customs, check out the following article!