How to read it

1927 minus 1926, the year Shōwa began, plus one, gives 2: 昭和2年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 25 to a Shōwa year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 2 + 25 = 27. On paper it is S2: 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 1927 turns 99 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 100. That makes 2026 a celebration year: 99 is hakuju 白寿, because 白 is 百 with one stroke taken away.

Other years

• 1922大正11年
• 1923大正12年
• 1924大正13年
• 1925大正14年
• 1926昭和元年
• 1928昭和3年
• 1929昭和4年
• 1930昭和5年
• 1931昭和6年
• 1932昭和7年

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