How to read it

2024 minus 2019, the year Reiwa began, plus one, gives 6: 令和6年. The shortcut Japanese people use: add 18 to a Reiwa year and you have the last two digits of the Western year — 6 + 18 = 24. On paper it is R6: 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 2024 turns 2 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 3.

2024 in the Chinese zodiac

2024 is the year of the Wood Dragon (甲辰). The zodiac year began on 10 February 2024.

Other years

• 2019令和元年
• 2020令和2年
• 2021令和3年
• 2022令和4年
• 2023令和5年
• 2025令和7年
• 2026令和8年
• 2027令和9年
• 2028令和10年
• 2029令和11年

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