School Entrance and Graduation Year Calculator (Japan)

How to use

1. Enter the date of birth of the person whose school years you want to find in "Date of birth"
2. Choose what came "After high school". The default is "University (4 years)". Choose "No further school" if you only need the years up to high school
3. With "University (4 years)" selected, "Graduate school" lets you add a master's course or a doctorate
4. If the person took longer than the standard number of years, enter the years in "Gap before entering" and "Extra years enrolled". Leave them blank if there was no delay

Once a date of birth is entered, the month and year of each entrance and graduation are listed from elementary school onward. The table is laid out like the education section of a Japanese résumé (rirekisho), with year, month, and education columns. There is no calculate button. The result updates whenever an input changes.

"Years in" above the table switches between Western years and Japanese eras. Western years are shown first. The button under the table copies the list as text, one line per row, in the years shown: "Copy with Western years" or "Copy with Japanese eras". Use it as a draft for the education section of a résumé.

This tool covers schools in Japan, where the school year starts in April and ends in March.

Example

A person born on 15 May 2000 who went to a four-year university after high school:

• Elementary school, entrance: April 2007 (Heisei 19)
• Elementary school, graduation: March 2013 (Heisei 25)
• Junior high school, entrance: April 2013 (Heisei 25)
• Junior high school, graduation: March 2016 (Heisei 28)
• High school, entrance: April 2016 (Heisei 28)
• High school, graduation: March 2019 (Heisei 31)
• University, entrance: April 2019 (Heisei 31)
• University, graduation: March 2023 (Reiwa 5)

Above the table the tool shows "School year of children born 2 April 2000 – 1 April 2001". Everyone born in that range is in the same school year and has the same entrance and graduation years.

Changing one condition gives the following:

• "Junior or vocational college (2 years)": graduation in March 2021 (Reiwa 3)
• "University (6 years)": graduation in March 2025 (Reiwa 7)
• "Gap before entering" set to 1 (one year spent retaking entrance exams): university entrance in April 2020 (Reiwa 2), graduation in March 2024 (Reiwa 6)
• "Extra years enrolled" set to 1 (one repeated year or a year of leave): university entrance stays April 2019, graduation in March 2024 (Reiwa 6)
• "Graduate school" set to "Master's": entrance to the master's course in April 2023 (Reiwa 5), completion in March 2025 (Reiwa 7)

Early-born dates

People born from 1 January to 1 April are called early-born (hayaumare) and share a school year with those born on or after 2 April of the year before. When the date of birth is early-born, "Early-born (hayaumare)" appears above the table.

• Born 2 April 2000: enters elementary school in April 2007
• Born 10 March 2001 (early-born): enters elementary school in April 2007
• Born 1 April 2001 (early-born): enters elementary school in April 2007
• Born 2 April 2001: enters elementary school in April 2008

A child born on 1 April joins the earlier year because, under Japanese law, a person becomes a year older at the end of the day before the birthday. A child born on 1 April turns six on 31 March and enters the school year that starts the next day, 1 April. A child born on 2 April turns six on 1 April and enters school in April of the following year.

How it is calculated

The school year starts on 1 April and ends on 31 March of the next year. The tool places every entrance in April and every graduation in March.

• Elementary school entrance: April of the birth year + 7 (birth year + 6 for early-born dates)
• Elementary school lasts 6 years, junior high school 3 years, high school 3 years
• The school after high school lasts the length of the chosen course (2, 3, 4 or 6 years)
• In graduate school, a master's course lasts 2 years and a doctoral course 3 years

"Gap before entering" is the number of years between leaving high school and entering the next school. It moves both the entrance and the graduation later. "Extra years enrolled" is the number of years spent at the school after high school beyond its standard length. The entrance stays the same and only the graduation moves later. Graduate school is entered in April of the year the university is left.

Japanese eras

The era is the one in force in April for an entrance and in March for a graduation.

• Up to 1988: Showa (Western year − 1925)
• 1989 to 2019: Heisei (Western year − 1988)
• From 2020: Reiwa (Western year − 2018)

The years in which the era changed work out as follows:

• A graduation in March 1989 and an entrance in April 1989 are Heisei 1. Heisei began on 8 January 1989, so March and April are already Heisei
• A graduation in March 2019 and an entrance in April 2019 are Heisei 31. Reiwa began on 1 May 2019, so March and April are still Heisei. Reiwa 1 never appears as an entrance or graduation date

The Japanese page writes the first year of an era as 元年 (gannen). The English page writes it as 1.

Future years are shown on the assumption that Reiwa continues.

Writing a Japanese résumé

• The education section usually starts from junior high school graduation or high school entrance. Use only the lines you need from the copied text
• Use either Western years or eras throughout the résumé, matching the date of birth, work history and qualifications sections
• Replace "Elementary school", "University" and so on with the real school, faculty and department names
• Graduate school is "completed" (修了), not "graduated from" (卒業). The tool labels graduate school rows accordingly
• Add lines yourself for withdrawal, a change of school or a transfer admission

Accepted values

• The date of birth must be from 2 April 1940 to 31 December 2099. People born on or before 1 April 1940 started school before the current system (the 6-3-3 system introduced in April 1947) and are not covered
• "Gap before entering" and "Extra years enrolled" are whole numbers from 0 to 9. A blank field counts as 0
• "Graduate school" is available only with "University (4 years)"
• When a value is out of range, the tool names the field to fix instead of showing a result

FAQ

Up to which date is a birthday early-born?

From 1 January to 1 April. A person born on 1 April is early-born, and the next school year starts with those born on 2 April. The reason is given under "Early-born dates".

Is a graduation in March 2019 Heisei 31 or Reiwa 1?

Heisei 31. Reiwa began on 1 May 2019. An entrance in April 2019 is also Heisei 31.

How do I enter a gap year or a repeated year?

Enter years spent before entering university in "Gap before entering", and repeated years or leave taken after entering in "Extra years enrolled". For one gap year and one repeated year, enter 1 in both.

Can it handle a repeated year in high school?

There is no field that shifts the years up to high school. If high school graduation was one year late, add 1 to the high school graduation year shown, and enter 1 in "Gap before entering" to get the same later years.

What about a college of technology (kosen)?

A kosen is entered in April of the year junior high school is left and finished in March five years later. The tool has no kosen option, so take the junior high school graduation year shown as the entrance year and add 5 for the graduation in March. For a person born on 15 May 2000, that is entrance in April 2016 and graduation in March 2021.

What about graduate school after a six-year university?

A doctoral course entered after a six-year course such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy or veterinary medicine normally lasts 4 years. The tool does not calculate it, so add 4 to the graduation year of "University (6 years)".

Does it support schools that start in September, or schools outside Japan?

No. It covers only Japanese schools whose year starts in April and ends in March.

Does it support skipped grades or deferred entry?

No. It assumes entry to elementary school at the standard age.

Can I include school names in the copied text?

No. The copied text contains only the kind of school, such as "Elementary school" or "University". Replace it with the real name after pasting.

Is the date of birth I enter saved?

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. The date of birth is neither sent to a server nor stored, and it is cleared when the page is reloaded.