Convert western years into Japanese years
In Japan, it’s usually the Gregorian calendar years (e.g. 2005) that we use everyday, but for official and administrative purposes, the Japanese calendar is often used, and that can be confusing if you don’t know it.
Fortunately, this online tool converts western years into Japanese Emperor Era years (”nengo”, 年号).
The Japanese year is written with the name of the reigning Emperor followed by the year of his reign and the kanji character for “year”. For example, 2005 is Heisei 17, and can be written in Japanese as 平成17年 or 平成十七年.
The most common occasion when you might need to use this calendar system is for paperwork that ask for your date of birth, which means that once you memorize this, you should be safe for a while. And if you were not born before 1925, it will be either Showa or Heisei. Note that in some forms, the eras are shortened to just the first kanji, or even becomes a choice between S and H.
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