Time Kanji: Day 日, Month 月, Year 年, Time 時, Week 週

Telling the date and time in Japanese means knowing five workhorse kanji, several of which have multiple readings depending on the number in front of them.

日 — day / sun (the trickiest)

日 means both “sun” and “day,” and its reading changes constantly. As a weekday counter the days 1–10 are highly irregular: 一日 (tsuitachi, 1st), 二日 (futsuka, 2nd), 三日 (mikka, 3rd)… These must be memorized.

月 — month / moon

• Months count regularly: 一月 (ichigatsu, January), 二月 (nigatsu)…
• But “how many months” uses かげつ: 三ヶ月 (sankagetsu, three months).
• 月曜日 (getsuyōbi) = Monday; 今月 (kongetsu) = this month.

年, 時, 週

• 年 (nen/toshi) — year. 今年 (kotoshi) this year, 去年 (kyonen) last year, 来年 (rainen) next year.
• 時 (ji/toki) — time, o'clock. 三時 (sanji) 3 o'clock, 時間 (jikan) duration.
• 週 (shū) — week. 今週 (konshū) this week, 来週 (raishū) next week, 週末 (shūmatsu) weekend.

Put it together

With these five you can read a full date: 2026年6月12日金曜日 — “Friday, June 12, 2026.” Notice the order is the reverse of English: year, month, day.