Japanese calendar types have included a range of official and unofficial systems. At present, Japan uses the Gregorian calendar, together with year designations stating the year of the reign of the current emperor. History The lunisolar Chinese calendar was introduced to Japan via Korea in the middle of the sixth century. After that, Japan calculated its calendar using various Chinese calendar procedures, and from 1685, using Japanese variations of the Chinese procedures. But in 1873, as part of Japan's Meiji Period modernization, a calendar based on the solar Gregorian calendar was introduced. In Japan today, the old Chinese calendar is virtually ignored; celebrations of the Lunar New Year are thus limited to Chinese and other Asian immigrant communities. Japan has had more than one system for designating years. including The Chinese sexagenary cycle was early introduced into Japan. It was often used together with era names, as in the 1729 Ise calendar shown above, which is for "the 14th year of Kyōhō, tsuchi-no-to no tori," i.e., 己酉. Now, though, the cycle is seldom used except around New Year's. The era name (年号, nengō?) system was also introduced from China, and has been in continuous use since 701 A.D. Era names were normally changed with each emperor, but they could be changed for other reasons, also. However, now eras are always changed at the start of a new reign, and only then. Nengō are the official means of dating years in Japan, and virtually all government business is conducted using that system. It is also in general use in private and personal business. The Japanese Imperial year (皇紀, kōki?) or kigen 紀元 is based on the date of the legendary founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. It was first used in the official calendar in 1873. However, it never replaced era names, and since World War II has been abandoned. The Western Common Era (Anno Domini) (西暦, seireki?) system has gradually come into common use since the Meiji period. Now, most people know it, as well as era names. Official calendar Years The imperial year system (kōki) was used from 1872 to the Second World War. Imperial year 1 (Kōki 1) was the year when the legendary Emperor Jimmu founded Japan -- 660 BC according to the Gregorian Calendar. In terms of nationalism, kōki emphasizes the long history of Japan and the imperial family because it is a larger number than the Anno Domini year (AD). Kōki 2600 (1940) was a special year. The 1940 Summer Olympics and Tokyo Expo were planned as anniversary events, but were canceled due to the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese aircraft Zero Fighter was named after this year. After the Second World War, the United States occupied Japan, and stopped the use of kōki by officials. Today, kōki is rarely used, except in some judicial contexts. The 1898 law determining the placement of leap years is officially based on the kōki years: If the year count since the enthronement of Jinmu is evenly divisible by four, it is a leap year. However, among the years that are evenly divisible by 100 when 660 is subtracted from the beginning of the era (=kōki) year count, if the quotient is not evenly divisible by four, then it is not a leap year. So for example, the year Kōki 2560 (=1900 AD) is divisible by 4. However, 2560 minus 660 = 1900, which is evenly divisible by 100. However, 1900/100 = 19 is not evenly divisible by 4, so kōki 2560 was not a leap year, just as in most of the rest of the world. Thus the leap years in Japan are the same as those of the Gregorian calendar. Seasons See also "Seasonal days", below. Months The modern Japanese names for the months literally translate to "first month", "second month", and so on. The corresponding number is combined with the suffix 月 (-gatsu, "month"). The table below uses traditional numerals, but the use of Arabic numerals (１月, ２月, ３月 etc.) is common. In addition, every month has a traditional name, still used by some in fields such as poetry; of the twelve, Shiwasu is still widely used today. The opening paragraph of a letter or the greeting in a speech might borrow one of these names to convey a sense of the season. Some, such as Yayoi and Satsuki, do double duty as given names (for women). These month names also appear from time to time on jidaigeki, contemporary television shows and movies set in the Edo period or earlier. The old Japanese calendar was an adjusted lunar calendar based on the Chinese calendar, and the year—and with it the months—started anywhere from about 3 to 7 weeks later than the modern year, so in historical contexts it is not entirely accurate to equate the first month with January. Subdivisions of the month Attribution: Article text available under CC-BY-SA Creative Commons image source in video

• published: 04 Dec 2013
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