Japanese Era (Nengō) Converter

A Japanese form, a driver's licence or a contract shows something like 令和8年 or R8 in the date field, and you need the Gregorian year to fill in another document. Japan uses the Gregorian calendar day to day, but official paperwork and plenty of government systems still count years by the reigning emperor's era.

The era year is the offset from its start plus one: Reiwa began in 2019, so 2026 is Reiwa 8. Before it came Heisei (1989), Shōwa (1926), Taishō (1912) and Meiji (1868); anything earlier than 1868 returns a dash. The catch is that eras change mid-year. This tool works at year granularity and shows only the era that took over during that year.

If your date falls in 2019, check the month: through April 30 it was still Heisei 31, and Reiwa 1 began on May 1. The same applies to 1989, which was Shōwa 64 until January 7. On documents the first year of an era is written 元年 (gannen) rather than 1. Conversion runs Gregorian to era only, year by year, entirely in your browser.