How to read it

2023 minus 2019, the year Reiwa began, plus one, gives 5: 令和5年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 18 to a Reiwa year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 5 + 18 = 23. On paper it is R5: 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 2023 turns 3 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 4. 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.

2023 in the Chinese zodiac

2023 is the year of the Water Rabbit (癸卯). The zodiac year began on 22 January 2023.

Other years

• 2018平成30年
• 2019令和元年
• 2020令和2年
• 2021令和3年
• 2022令和4年
• 2024令和6年
• 2025令和7年
• 2026令和8年
• 2027令和9年
• 2028令和10年

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