How to read it

2021 minus 2019, the year Reiwa began, plus one, gives 3: 令和3年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 18 to a Reiwa year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 3 + 18 = 21. On paper it is R3: 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 2021 turns 5 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 6. That is one of the three ages celebrated at Shichi-go-san 七五三 in November, when children are taken to a shrine in their first formal kimono.

2021 in the Chinese zodiac

2021 is the year of the Metal Ox (辛丑). The zodiac year began on 12 February 2021.

Other years

• 2016平成28年
• 2017平成29年
• 2018平成30年
• 2019令和元年
• 2020令和2年
• 2022令和4年
• 2023令和5年
• 2024令和6年
• 2025令和7年
• 2026令和8年

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