The core idea: one April year, and a count that restarts
The gakunen (学年), the school year, begins on 1 April and ends on 31 March in schools across the country. Children move up together each April, one rung at a time, and there is almost no repeating or skipping of years. When a child reaches a new school, the count starts again at one. The sixth year of primary school is followed not by a seventh year but by the first year of junior high.
That is why grade names are so short. Take the first kanji of the school, 小, 中 or 高, and add the year: 小3 is shō-san, the third year of primary school; 中2 is chū-ni; 高1 is kō-ichi. Read the ladder from the bottom.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| うちの子は小3です。 | Uchi no ko wa shō-san desu. | My child is in the third year of primary school. |
| 上の子が中1で、下の子が年長です。 | Ue no ko ga chū-ichi de, shita no ko ga nenchō desu. | My older one is in the first year of junior high, and my younger one is in the final kindergarten year. |
| お子さんは何年生ですか。 | Okosan wa nan-nensei desu ka. | What year is your child in? |
| 来年、小学校に上がります。 | Rainen, shōgakkō ni agarimasu. | Next year she starts primary school. |
| 4月から中学生です。 | Shigatsu kara chūgakusei desu. | He'll be a junior high student from April. |
| もう高校生なんですね。 | Mō kōkōsei na n desu ne. | So she's already in high school. |
The ladder, stage by stage
Two names at the bottom need care. Yōchien (幼稚園) is literally a garden for young children, a direct borrowing of the idea of the kindergarten; it is a school, under the education ministry, from age three. Hoikuen is childcare for families where parents work, from babies upwards, and since 2023 it has been overseen by the Children and Families Agency. Kōkō is short for kōtō gakkō, literally higher-grade school.
| School | Reading | Ages | Years | How the years are said |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 保育園 | hoikuen | 0 to 6 | Up to six | By age class, then nenshō, nenchū, nenchō |
| 幼稚園 | yōchien | 3 to 6 | Three | Nenshō, nenchū, nenchō |
| 小学校 | shōgakkō | 6 to 12 | Six | Shō-ichi to shō-roku |
| 中学校 | chūgakkō | 12 to 15 | Three | Chū-ichi to chū-san |
| 高校 | kōkō | 15 to 18 | Three | Kō-ichi to kō-san |
| 大学 | daigaku | 18 to 22 | Four, six for medicine | Daigaku ichi-nensei; in Kansai, ikkaisei |
| 専門学校 | senmon gakkō | 18 to 20 | Usually two | Ichi-nensei, ni-nensei |
Nenshō, nenchū and nenchō are literally the young, middle and senior years, and nenchō is the last year before primary school. Many also give classes their own names, often flowers or animals.
Saying the grade aloud
The full form is school plus year plus sei, student: shōgaku san-nensei. Adults shorten it to shō-san, and children do too. Teenagers often drop sei and say kōkō ni-nen. Ages and grades are separate questions. Nan-sai desu ka asks how old; nan-nensei desu ka asks which year, and the second is the one parents trade at the school gate. A teenager introducing herself at a club, or a student at a part-time job interview, might say these.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 高校二年です。 | Kōkō ni-nen desu. | I'm in my second year of high school. |
| 大学三年生です。 | Daigaku san-nensei desu. | I'm a third-year university student. |
| 三回生です。 | San-kaisei desu. | I'm in my third year. (Kansai universities) |
| 今年は高3で、受験生です。 | Kotoshi wa kō-san de, jukensei desu. | This year I'm in my final year of high school, studying for entrance exams. |
| 息子さんは今、何年生ですか。 | Musuko-san wa ima, nan-nensei desu ka. | What year is your son in now? |
The April start and the April 2 cut-off
Here is the rule that surprises everyone. The school year starts on 1 April, but a year group runs from birthdays on 2 April to birthdays on 1 April. The reason is legal, not administrative. Under Japanese law a person becomes a year older at the end of the day before their birthday, so a child born on 1 April legally turns six on 31 March, just in time for the April start. The School Education Act sends children to school from the first April after they turn six, and that one day moves April 1 birthdays into the older year.
Children born from 1 January to 1 April are called hayaumare, literally early born: they join the class of children born the previous calendar year and are the youngest in their year. Terms and holidays sit inside the same April-to-March frame.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 娘は3月生まれなので、早生まれです。 | Musume wa sangatsu umare na node, hayaumare desu. | My daughter was born in March, so she's one of the youngest in her year. |
| 4月1日生まれは、上の学年になります。 | Shigatsu tsuitachi umare wa, ue no gakunen ni narimasu. | Children born on 1 April go into the year above. |
| 同い年ですが、学年は一つ違います。 | Onaidoshi desu ga, gakunen wa hitotsu chigaimasu. | They're the same age, but a school year apart. |
| 同じ学年ですね。 | Onaji gakunen desu ne. | So they're in the same year. |
Terms, holidays and ceremonies
Most primary and junior high schools divide the year into three terms, sangakki: April to July, September to December, and January to March. Some schools, and many high schools and universities, use two terms instead, zenki and kōki. Holiday dates are set by each local board of education, so they vary: summer holidays typically run from late July to the end of August, but are shorter in Hokkaido and other cold regions, which have a longer winter break.
Each term opens with a shigyōshiki, an opening ceremony, and closes with a shūgyōshiki. The school year begins with the nyūgakushiki, the entrance ceremony, in early April, and ends with the sotsugyōshiki, graduation, in March. A parent checking dates with the school office or another parent might ask these.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 夏休みはいつからですか。 | Natsu-yasumi wa itsu kara desu ka. | When do the summer holidays start? |
| 2学期は何日から始まりますか。 | Ni-gakki wa nan-nichi kara hajimarimasu ka. | What date does the second term start? |
| 明日は終業式なので、早く帰ってきます。 | Ashita wa shūgyōshiki na node, hayaku kaette kimasu. | Tomorrow is the end-of-term ceremony, so he'll come home early. |
| 入学式は4月の何日ですか。 | Nyūgakushiki wa shigatsu no nan-nichi desu ka. | What date in April is the entrance ceremony? |
| この学校は2学期制です。 | Kono gakkō wa ni-gakki-sei desu. | This school uses a two-term system. |
Beyond the basics: compulsory years, exams and six-year schools
Gimu kyōiku (義務教育), literally duty education, is the nine years from shō-ichi to chū-san. Parents are legally obliged to send children for those years. For children of foreign nationality, the education ministry states that the obligation does not apply, but public schools accept any child whose parents ask, with no tuition and free textbooks, on the same terms as Japanese children.
The ladder has side routes. A gimu kyōiku gakkō, a combined nine-year school, has existed since 2016. A chūkō ikkan-kō is a six-year junior and senior high, usually entered by an exam at twelve, which is why some families talk about chūgaku juken. A kōsen, a college of technology, takes students at fifteen for five years. Juken is sitting entrance exams; nyūshi is the exam itself.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| うちは中学受験はしません。 | Uchi wa chūgaku juken wa shimasen. | We're not doing the junior high entrance exams. |
| 来年は高校受験です。 | Rainen wa kōkō juken desu. | Next year is the high school entrance exam year. |
| 中高一貫校に通っています。 | Chūkō ikkan-kō ni kayotte imasu. | She goes to a six-year secondary school. |
| 息子は高専の2年生です。 | Musuko wa kōsen no ni-nensei desu. | My son is in his second year at a college of technology. |
| 4月から専門学校に進学します。 | Shigatsu kara senmon gakkō ni shingaku shimasu. | From April I'm going on to a vocational school. |
Beyond the basics: words that change as a child moves up
Japanese has different words for the same event at different stages. Kindergarten and nursery use en, garden, so a child enters with nyūen and leaves with sotsuen, while schools use nyūgaku and sotsugyō. Even the word for the pupil changes. Everyday speech also has two words for moving up that learners often mix: shinkyū stays in the same school, shingaku moves to the next one. The words for school paperwork and the parents' association, and for subjects and homework, are covered in separate posts.
| Word | Reading | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 入園 / 卒園 | nyūen / sotsuen | Starting and leaving nursery or kindergarten |
| 入学 / 卒業 | nyūgaku / sotsugyō | Starting and finishing a school |
| 進級 | shinkyū | Moving up a year within the same school |
| 進学 | shingaku | Going on to the next school |
| 園児 | enji | A child at nursery or kindergarten |
| 児童 | jidō | A primary pupil, in official language |
| 生徒 | seito | A junior high or high school student |
| 学生 | gakusei | A university or college student; loosely, any student |
Common mistakes with school years and grade names
Working out the grade from the calendar year of birth. In many countries a year group follows January to December or a September cut-off, so parents count that way. In Japan, find the April-to-April band first: a child born in February joins the year above those born in May of the same calendar year.
Continuing the numbers past primary school, as in seventh grade. The cause is a one-to-twelve system at home. The fix is to restart at each school: seventh grade is chū-ichi, tenth grade is kō-ichi.
Treating hoikuen and yōchien as the same thing. Both are translated as preschool, but hoikuen is childcare for working families, applied for through the city office, and yōchien is a school from age three, applied for directly. Asking about the wrong one wastes a trip.
Calling a primary pupil a gakusei. The dictionary says student, but on its own gakusei suggests university. Say shōgakusei, or jidō in official contexts.
Assuming holidays fall on the same dates everywhere. The school year is national, but terms and holidays are set locally, so check the school's nenkan gyōji yotei, the calendar of events for the year.