Date

Days of the month

In Japanese, months of the year are also quite straight forward. The month 月 here is read as gatsu when it is used for months of the year.

Simply add the Japanese numbers of 1 to 12 in front of 月 to form the months from January to December respectively.

Month	Japanese	Characters
January	ichi-gatsu	一月
February	ni-gatsu	二月
March	san-gatsu	三月
April	shi-gatsu	四月
May	go-gatsu	五月
June	roku-gatsu	六月
July	shichi-gatsu	七月
August	hachi-gatsu	八月
September	ku-gatsu	九月
October	juu-gatsu	十月
November	juuichi-gatsu	十一月
December	juuni-gatsu	十二月

The first day of the month is called tsuitachi [一日, It comes from tsukitachi (月立ち), tsuki (月) (moon) plus tatsu (立つ) (to stand up), via a corruption of the sound], and the second to tenth, fourteenth, twentieth, and twenty-fourth days use ka rather than nichi for the day, and native Japanese numerals like futsuka (二日) for the day, rather than ninichi. Also, the pronunciation ku of the number nine, rather than kyū, is used for the nineteenth and twenty-ninth.

The names for the days of the month plus kan (間) are also used for a period of days. For example nanokakan (七日間) is "a period of seven days". However, tsuitachi is not used in this form. Nijūyojikan (二十四時間) (twenty-four hours) is a more usual way to say a period of exactly one day.[1]

Day	Rōmaji	Kana	Kanji	Note
1	Tsuitachi	ついたち	一日
2	Futsuka	ふつか	二日
3	Mikka	みっか	三日
4	Yokka	よっか	四日
5	Itsuka	いつか	五日
6	Muika	むいか	六日
7	Nanoka	なのか	七日
8	Yōka	ようか	八日	Mnemonic to distinguish yōka and yokka: Eight days is longer than four days, and this uses a long vowel, whereas yokka (the fourth) uses a short vowel.
9	Kokonoka	ここのか	九日
10	Tōka	とおか	十日
11	Jūichi nichi	じゅういちにち	十一日
12	Jūni nichi	じゅうににち	十二日
13	Jūsan nichi	じゅうさんにち	十三日
14	Jūyokka	じゅうよっか	十四日	This breaks the pattern of using Chinese-style numbers for the tens.
15	Jūgo nichi	じゅうごにち	十五日
16	Jūroku nichi	じゅうろくにち	十六日
17	Jūshichi nichi	じゅうしちにち	十七日
18	Jūhachi nichi	じゅうはちにち	十八日
19	Jūku nichi	じゅうくにち	十九日	Jūku is more common than jūkyū.
20	Hatsuka	はつか	二十日	This breaks the pattern of using Chinese-style numbers. Hatachi is twenty in the Japanese counting system.
21	Nijūichi nichi	にじゅういちにち	二十一日
22	Nijūni nichi	にじゅうににち	二十二日
23	Nijūsan nichi	にじゅうさんにち	二十三日
24	Nijūyokka	にじゅうよっか	二十四日
25	Nijūgo nichi	にじゅうごにち	二十五日
26	Nijūroku nichi	にじゅうろくにち	二十六日
27	Nijūshichi nichi	にじゅうしちにち	二十七日
28	Nijūhachi nichi	にじゅうはちにち	二十八日
29	Nijūku nichi	にじゅうくにち	二十九日	Nijūku is more common than Nijūkyū.
30	Sanjū nichi	さんじゅうにち	三十日
31	Sanjūichi nichi	さんじゅういちにち	三十一日

Days of the Week

There are many things weird about the Japanese culture, but their calendar weeks have seven days just like the rest of world (probably). That said, what are the weekdays called in Japanese?

It's a little complicated as always. First off, a single "weekday" is a youbi 曜日. Every single weekday ends with that youbi, as if it were a suffix.

jp_weekdays-japanese-youbi

	Japanese weekday (romaji)	In kanji	Kanji meaning	Planet	Planet in Japanese
Monday	Getsuyōbi	月曜日(げつようび)	The moon	The moon	Tsuki (月)
Tuesday	Kayōbi	火曜日(かようび)	Fire- hi 火	Mars	Kasei (火星)
Wednesday	Suiyōbi	水曜日(すいようび	Water-mizu 水	Mercury	Suisei (水星)
Thursday	Mokuyōbi	木曜日(もくようび)	Wood-ki 木; tree	Jupiter	Mokusei (木星)
Friday	Kin'yōbi	金曜日(きんようび)	Metal; gold	Venus	Kinsei (金星)
Saturday	Doyōbi	土曜日(どようび)	Earth, soil-tsuchi 土	Saturn	Dosei (土星)
Sunday	Nichiyōbi	日曜日(にちようび)	Sun	The sun	hi (日); taiyō (太陽)
weekday	heijitsu	平日(へいじつ)
weekend	shuumatsu	週末(しゅうまつ)

What day is it today?

Kyou wa nan youbi desuka.

今日は何曜日ですか。