Japanese Calendars: A Different Way of Looking at 2027

Most calendars tell you the date. These offer something more: a daily glimpse into Japanese traditions, embossed moons that change with the seasons, or a clever way to keep three months in view. We've been using samples ourselves, and liked them enough to bring a small collection to Yorkshire for 2027.

It began with a colleague from Taiwan, who brought a Japanese tear-off calendar back after a visit home. We'd never seen anything quite like it. What looked at first like a daily calendar turned out to be full of little details about Japanese life and tradition.

We loved it, so we set about tracking down the supplier. That search led us further into the world of Japanese calendars and to Replug, a Japanese design company with some rather clever ideas about keeping track of the date.

We were also sent a few remaining 2026 calendars, so we've been trying them at home, in the office and in the shop. Here's what we've enjoyed about living with them.

A Japanese tear-off calendar: more than the date

Perhaps the most intriguing of the collection is the traditional Japanese Tear-Off Calendar.

There is one very fine sheet for every day of the year. Each morning you tear away yesterday and reveal a new page underneath. Look more closely and there's far more to explore than the day and month.

One of the example pages tells us that it's an unlucky day for negotiations and marriages, but apparently a good day to buy a car. Not quite the advice we expected over breakfast.

That's part of its appeal: a small morning ritual, with something new to puzzle over each day.

Paper worth pausing over

The thin, translucent pages have a delicacy that's difficult to appreciate from a photograph. Even with a whole year's worth of sheets, there's an unexpected lightness to it.

We can imagine individual pages finding their way into notebooks and journals rather than going straight into the recycling.

There is, admittedly, one slight complication: the text is in Japanese. A camera translation app, such as Google Lens, can help you explore it. Translations won't always be perfect, but working out what each page says is part of the fun.

Michiru: following the moon through the seasons

Replug's Michiru moon calendar takes a different approach, charting the changing phases of the moon throughout 2027.

The moons are embossed into softly textured paper, giving them a physical presence rather than simply being printed onto the surface. The colours change subtly through the year to reflect the seasons.

We have a sample hanging at home, and it's been surprisingly joyful to live with. We've been adding the little cloud-shaped masking stickers, moving them around the moons and using them to mark dates. It turns the calendar into something you interact with, rather than simply glance at on the wall.

The little clouds

The cloud-shaped masking stickers deserve a mention of their own.

They're translucent, with shapes inspired by traditional Japanese cloud motifs. You can write on them to mark birthdays, holidays or important dates, then position them around the moons.

Or, frankly, just add them because they look lovely. It's a tiny idea, but one that changes the character of the calendar.

Michiru Kira: embossed moons and gold foil

Michiru Kira offers a quieter version of the moon calendar: predominantly white, with each embossed moon picked out in delicate gold foil.

As the light changes, so does the appearance of the gold. It feels closer to a piece of graphic art than office stationery, while still earning its place as a calendar.

Michiru Mini: moon phases for your desk

We've also got the Michiru Mini sitting on a desk at work.

It takes the same idea as the wall calendar and shrinks it down to a tabletop version, with embossed moon phases and changing seasonal colours. A good choice if you'd like the moons close by but don't have a wall to spare.

Three months at once: a little more room to plan

The 3's Calendar solves a very ordinary problem: most desk calendars only show you this month.

Replug's solution keeps three months visible at once. When a month finishes, you tear away the perforated section and the next month appears.

Simple. Obvious, once someone has thought of it. And extremely useful.

The smaller Triangular Calendar does something similar in a palm-sized form. You rotate it to see three months at a time and tear away each month as the year progresses.

Which calendar would we choose?

For a daily ritual and a little Japanese-language discovery, we'd choose the tear-off calendar. It's the one for someone who enjoys taking a closer look.

For something to enjoy on the wall, we'd pick Michiru for its seasonal colours, or Kira for white and gold. The Mini brings the same pleasure to a smaller workspace.

For practical planning, we'd go for the 3's Calendar or the compact Triangular Calendar. Being able to see beyond the end of the month is a small change that makes a lot of sense.

Why are we talking about 2027 already?

October may feel early to be choosing next year's calendar, but we've brought over limited numbers. These aren't products we can simply reorder from a UK distributor a week before Christmas, so we wanted to give our regular customers a head start.

We've spent quite a lot of time with them now: first tracking them down, then choosing which ones to bring over, and finally using them ourselves.

Useful objects, made with care, that bring a little pleasure to everyday life. That's what we're always looking for at Made in Japan, and these calendars are a rather good example.

Choose your companion for the year ahead from the calendars linked above, whether that's a page to turn each morning, moons to follow through the seasons, or a little more room to plan.