How to read it

2022 minus 2019, the year Reiwa began, plus one, gives 4: 令和4年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 18 to a Reiwa year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 4 + 18 = 22. On paper it is R4: 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 2022 turns 4 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 5.

2022 in the Chinese zodiac

2022 is the year of the Water Tiger (壬寅). The zodiac year began on 1 February 2022.

Other years

• 2017平成29年
• 2018平成30年
• 2019令和元年
• 2020令和2年
• 2021令和3年
• 2023令和5年
• 2024令和6年
• 2025令和7年
• 2026令和8年
• 2027令和9年

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