How To Tell Time in Japanese: A Step-By-Step Guide

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Punctuality is highly valued in Japanese culture. Japanese trains and subways are known for being exceptionally good at adhering to their schedules, and being on time is a show of respect for the other party. That means learning how to tell time in Japanese is essential for language and social purposes.

Time in the Japanese language can be deceptively complicated, though, between knowing the numbers and understanding the Japanese grammar to put it in context. This guide takes you through telling time in Japanese from start to finish, including counters, expressions, and plenty of examples. The pronunciation can be tricky, but programs like Rosetta Stone’s TruAccent speech recognition engine will keep you on track.

How do you tell time in Japanese?

Telling time in Japanese is done by using Japanese counters for hours, minutes, and seconds, if necessary.

• ~ji (～時): hour
• ~fun (～分): minute
• ~byō (～秒): second

When written with kanji, the pattern is [hour] ji [minute] fun. The HH:MM clock format for hours and minutes is also used in Japan. The numbers work in the same order, as shown here:

• niji jūgofun（２時１５分）= 2:15

Time in Japanese language materials may use the 24-hour clock or the 12-hour clock depending on preference or the policy of the company or government. In the 24-hour clock (sometimes referred to as “military time”), the afternoon hours go past 12, meaning 2:00 p.m. is equal to 14:00, 8:30 p.m. is 20:30, and so on.

In the 12-hour clock, equivalents to a.m. (gozen, 午前) and p.m. (gogo, 午後) are used. However, unlike in English, they go before the time instead of after it.

• gozen shichiji（午前七時）= 7:00 a.m.
• gogo sanji（午後三時）= 3:00 p.m.

When spelling out the time in Japanese, the numbers may either be in kanji or Arabic numerals. They are read and pronounced exactly the same!

Japanese counters for time

To understand time in Japanese, you first need to understand the counters for hours, minutes, and seconds. Fortunately, if you already know numbers in Japanese, you’re more than halfway there!

An essential point to remember is that some counters will have a different starting sound depending on the word that comes before it. The number itself may change as well. For example, the counter for “cups” is ~hai (～杯), but depending on what number comes before it, that may change to ~bai or ~pai. Carefully read the below charts about time counters to see what changes!

Hours in Japanese

The counter for “hour” in Japanese is ~ji (～時). Even if the kanji is absent in the HH:MM format (e.g., 1:00), the counter is still spoken.

There are only a few irregular readings for hours that you need to remember:

• 4 o’clock: yoji instead of yonji
• 7 o’clock: shichiji instead of nanaji (although nanaji is also acceptable)
• 9 o’clock: kuji instead of kyūji

Instead of adding minutes to the time for half past the hour, you can add the suffix ~han (半), which means “half.” 

• yoji han（四時半）= 4:30  (or “half past 4”)

Minutes in Japanese

The counter for “minutes” (~fun, ～分) is somewhat unusual. When there are irregular readings for numbers, it’s usually based on the first sound of the counter and the number. For example, when the counter begins with an “h” sound, it often becomes a “b” sound when a three (san) precedes it, such as when counting cylindrical objects (~hon, ～本): 

• sanbon（三本）= 3 cylindrical objects

However, ~fun does not change to ~bun when counting minutes. Rather, it changes to ~pun if the reading is irregular. Some of the words for minutes can be read either way, so if you’re ever unsure, there’s a good chance that ~fun is understandable.

Following that pattern, six numbers have irregular readings for minutes:

• 1 minute: ippun instead of ichifun
• 3 minutes: sanpun or sanfun
• 4 minutes: yonpun or yonfun
• 6 minutes: roppun instead of rokufun
• 8 minutes: happun or hachifun
• 10 minutes: juppun instead of jūfun

For numbers above 10 that aren’t multiples of 10 (e.g., 21-29), all you need to do is add the single digit to the end of the number and follow the pronunciation rules for the single digit.

• sanjū gofun（三十五分）= 35 minutes
• yonjū roppun（四十六分）= 46 minutes

To add this to the hour to say a time that includes hours and minutes, simply put the hour and its counter before the minutes and its counter together, as in the following examples:

• jūsanji jūgofun（十三時十五分）= 13:15 (or 1:15 p.m.)
• rokuji nijūhappun（六時二十八分）= 6:28

Seconds in Japanese

The counter for “seconds” in Japanese is ~byō (秒). This time increment is the easiest of the three, as there are no irregular readings at all! Seconds generally aren’t included when telling time in Japanese, but you’ll see them occasionally when counting short periods of time, such as in sports.