Japanese Era & Zodiac Lookup
Enter a Gregorian year, or how many years ago, to instantly find the matching Japanese era name, Japanese calendar year, zodiac sign, and historical period.
What the Japanese era and period lookup tells you
Enter either a Gregorian year or how many years ago, and this lookup gives you the corresponding Japanese era name, era year, zodiac sign and historical period all at once. It covers the span from Taika (645) to the present, and where several era names existed in the same year — as during the Northern and Southern Courts period — it judges automatically, treating the Southern Court as legitimate.
Era names and historical periods are separate classifications. An era name is the fine-grained unit that changes whenever an emperor accedes or an era is renamed, such as Reiwa, Heisei and Showa; a historical period is a larger bracket that attends to political and cultural change, such as the Edo period or the modern age from Meiji onwards. This tool shows both for a single year at the same time, so you can grasp in one go what a given year was in era terms and which period it belonged to.
How to use the era and period lookup
- Choose the lookup tab Pick between looking up by Gregorian year, where you type the year directly, and looking up by how many years ago, where you count back from today.
- Enter the year According to the tab you chose, type either the Gregorian year or the number of years ago. The range covered runs from 645 to the present.
- Check the result The matching era name, era year, zodiac sign and historical period appear together. For the Northern and Southern Courts period, the distinction between the two courts is shown as well.
- Read the message if the year is out of range Specify a year earlier than 645 and a message appears telling you it falls outside the range covered.
Tips for getting more out of it
- Use the "Look up by years ago" tab to instantly find out, for example, "what year was 50 years ago and which era was it?" It's also handy for planning reunions or anniversaries.
- The zodiac cycle repeats every 12 years. You can use this to find the zodiac sign for your own birth year or a family member's.
- For years that fall within the Nanbokucho period (1336-1392), the Southern Court's era name is shown first as the officially recognized one. The Northern Court's era name is also available for historical reference.
- If you want to browse a full list of era names, the companion tool List of Japanese Era Names is handy - it lists every era from the year 648 onward.
- The supported range is from 645 (the Taika era) to the present. Entering a year before 645 will display an out-of-range message.
When the era and period lookup helps
Wanting the era name and zodiac sign of a birth year together
Enter the Gregorian year in which you, a family member or an acquaintance was born and you get the era name, era year, zodiac sign and historical period at once. It also makes material for New Year cards and self-introductions.
Looking back at an event so many years ago in era terms
When preparing a reunion or an anniversary and you want to know what a year thirty years ago was called, entering the elapsed years alone gives you the era name and the period.
Quickly checking a single year on an old document
It serves when you want a rough grasp of just the era name and period for a year written on an old record or family register. To look into the full list of era names, the list of Japanese era names is there; for a table of Gregorian to Japanese year correspondence from Meiji onwards, the conversion table is handy.
Narrowing down candidate birth years from a zodiac sign
Because the zodiac comes round every twelve years, when you know the sign but not the exact year you can try several candidates and see which ones bring up the sign in question.
Terms for the era and period lookup
- Era name
- A name given to years, also called a year name. In Japan they have been used from Taika in 645 to the present Reiwa, and a new one begins at each renaming.
- Renaming of an era
- Changing to a new era name. From Meiji onwards it happens only at a change of emperor, but before the Edo period it was sometimes done on account of epidemics or disasters.
- Historical period
- A unit dividing history into large brackets by attending to political and cultural change, as with the Asuka period or the Edo period. One period may contain several era names.
- Japanese calendar year
- A way of expressing a year by combining an era name with the number of years within that era. As with Reiwa 6, the count starts over at every renaming.
- Southern and Northern Courts
- The two rival imperial courts that stood side by side during the Northern and Southern Courts period, from 1336 to 1392. Each used different era names, and the Southern Court is treated as legitimate today.
- Zodiac sign
- One of twelve symbols — rat, ox, tiger and so on — assigned to years. This tool shows only the twelve earthly branches, and the same sign comes round on a twelve-year cycle.
- First year of an era
- The first year in which a new era name began. Written as Reiwa 1, it means year one of that era.
Frequently Asked Questions
Side Note - Why "Kanreki" Lines Up With the Zodiac
The zodiac (juunishi, the 12 animal signs) completes a cycle every 12 years, but the term "eto" originally referred to a set of 60 combinations known as "jikkan junishi" - pairing the 10 celestial stems (ko, otsu, hei...) with the 12 zodiac signs (rat, ox, tiger...). Combining the two produces 60 distinct patterns, and it takes 60 years for the combination from one's birth year to come full circle - that milestone is called "kanreki" (還暦), the 60th birthday celebration. This tool only displays the 12 zodiac signs, but the tradition of celebrating kanreki around the 60th year (in the traditional East Asian age count) traces back to this 60-year cycle.
The reason an era name and its Gregorian year can appear to line up unevenly is that era changes often happen partway through a year. For example, the change from Showa to Heisei took place on January 8, 1989: January 1-7, 1989 still counted as Showa 64, while January 8 onward became Heisei Year 1. This tool determines the era based on "the era in effect on January 1" rather than "the era that covers most of the year."
The reason two parallel sets of era names existed during the Nanbokucho (Northern and Southern Courts) period is that in 1336, Emperor Go-Daigo fled to Yoshino (in present-day Nara Prefecture) and established the Southern Court, which coexisted alongside the Northern Court in Kyoto. For the 56 years until the two courts were reunified in 1392, Japan effectively had two era names in use at the same time.