How to read it

1916 minus 1912, the year Taishō began, plus one, gives 5: 大正5年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 11 to a Taishō year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 5 + 11 = 16. On paper it is T5: forms print the era options — 明・大・昭・平・令, or the letters M T S H R — beside the date box, and you circle one and write the number. Someone born in 1916 turns 110 in 2026. In kazoedoshi 数え年 — the traditional count that starts at one at birth and adds a year every New Year — they are 111.

Other years

• 1911明治44年
• 1912大正元年
• 1913大正2年
• 1914大正3年
• 1915大正4年
• 1917大正6年
• 1918大正7年
• 1919大正8年
• 1920大正9年
• 1921大正10年

Every year of the Taishō era → · How the Japanese calendar works, and every year 1868–2050