The Japanese Eras

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Recent eras correspond to the reigns of emperors. Previous eras do not correspond to reigns of emperors but to what were decided to be "auspicious events". See also Japanese Timeline

Japanese	Romaji	Began	Add
平成	Heisei	1989	1988
昭和	Shôwa	1926	1925
大正	Taisei	1912	1911
明治	Meiji	1868	1867
慶応	Keiô	1865	1864
元治	Genji	1864	1863
文久	Bunkyû	1861	1860
万延	Man'en	1860	1859
安政	Ansei	1854	1853
嘉永	Kaei	1848	1847

To convert a date from the Japanese era to a Western date add the number in the `Add' column to the Japanese year. So for example `Shôwa 25' is 1950.

The Japanese government started using the Gregorian calendar in Meiji 6. So the day before January 1 of Meiji 6 was not December 31 of Meiji 5, but December 2 of Meiji 5.

For the two coins below, the dates are 平成十二年 and 平成六年

Revised: May 20, 2007