How to read it

2020 minus 2019, the year Reiwa began, plus one, gives 2: 令和2年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 18 to a Reiwa year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 2 + 18 = 20. On paper it is R2: 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 2020 turns 6 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 7.

2020 in the Chinese zodiac

2020 is the year of the Metal Rat (庚子). The zodiac year began on 25 January 2020.

Other years

• 2015平成27年
• 2016平成28年
• 2017平成29年
• 2018平成30年
• 2019令和元年
• 2021令和3年
• 2022令和4年
• 2023令和5年
• 2024令和6年
• 2025令和7年

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