Understanding the Wareki Date Format

In Japan, an era ends with the death of an emperor, and a new era begins with the reign of a new emperor. This table illustrates the Japanese eras since the year 1868:

Era	Dates
Meiji era	1868-1912
Taisho era	1912-1926
Showa era	1926-1989
Heisei era	1989-2019
(Release 9.2 Update)Reiwa era	2019-Present

Although the date format YY/MM/DD is used in Japan, businesses often use a special date convention that shows the year of the current era. This date format is referred to as the Wareki date format.

The Wareki date format is HYY/MM/DD, where H is an optional character for the specific era, and YY is the sequential year since the start of the era. For example, in the Heisei era, the Wareki equivalent of 99/01/31 (January 31, 1999) is H11/01/31, or January 31 of the eleventh year of the era. Businesses usually use the Wareki date format on outgoing documents; however, all dates on a bank tape must be represented in the Wareki format.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software uses the Wareki date format when you set up the Windows desktop settings to support this format.