Japan School Year Calculator

How the Japanese school year is decided by birthday

Japan groups children born from April 2 of one year to April 1 of the next into one school year. A child starts elementary school in the April of the year in which they are six years old on April 1. So a child born on or after April 2 starts in their birth year plus seven, and a child born between January 1 and April 1 starts in their birth year plus six.

From there the path is fixed: six years of elementary school, three of junior high school and three of high school, all compulsory or near-universal. A child born in October 2000 enters elementary school in April 2007, finishes junior high in March 2016 and graduates from high school in March 2019.

The April 1 rule comes from a legal quirk: under Japanese law a person becomes a year older at the end of the day before their birthday. Someone born on April 1 therefore turns six on March 31 and counts as six years old on April 1.

Quick reference: graduation year by birth year

Junior high, high school and four-year university graduation months for people who went straight through, grouped by Japanese school year (April 2 to April 1), with era years. Entry is three years before junior high and high school graduation and four years before university graduation. Add any gap or repeated years.

Which grade is my child in? Converting from a foreign system

Japanese schools place children by age, not by the grade they were in abroad. The school year that matches your child is the one this tool shows for their birthday, and public schools will normally place a child in that year regardless of what they completed elsewhere.

The grade names are 小学1〜6年 (elementary years 1 to 6), 中学1〜3年 (junior high 1 to 3) and 高校1〜3年 (high school 1 to 3). A child who would be in 5th grade in the United States in September will usually be in 小学5年 or 小学6年 in Japan depending on whether their birthday falls before or after the April cutoff.

Because the cutoff is April 1 rather than September or January, children from northern-hemisphere systems often move up or down half a year on arrival. Schools can be flexible for international families, so ask before enrolling if the placement looks wrong.

Education dates on a Japanese resume (rirekisho)

A Japanese resume lists education in order with the month and year of entry and graduation, usually starting from high school entry or junior high graduation. Each line is written as year, month and the school's full name, followed by 入学 (entered) or 卒業 (graduated).

Either Western years or Japanese era years are acceptable, but the whole resume should use one style. If you use era years, remember that April 2019 is Heisei 31, not Reiwa 1.

For schooling outside Japan, write the actual entry and graduation months of your own system; the April and March convention only applies to Japanese schools. Foreign university names are usually written in katakana or the original script with the country in brackets.

Gap years, repeated years and graduate school

Students who spend a year preparing for university entrance exams are called ronin. Pick the number of gap years and the university entry and graduation dates shift accordingly. Repeated years or a leave of absence push only the graduation date.

Graduate school is calculated as two years for a master's and three more for a doctorate. Medicine, dentistry, six-year pharmacy and veterinary programs are six-year degrees; choose the six-year university option for those. Vocational schools and junior colleges are shown as two years, so adjust if the program was longer.