Jyou

畳, たたみ or じょう

• English definition: 1. Tatami 2. Counter for tatami mats, when this kanji is preceded by a number it is read “jyou”. For example 六畳 or 6畳 (read “roku jyou”) describes a 6-tatami mat-sized Japanese-style room.

Real Estate Japan‘s word-of-the-day for January 11, 2019

• In Japanese apartment floor plans Japanese-style rooms (called wa-shitsu) also indicate the number of tatami mats they are comprised of.
• The size of a tatami mat varies slightly by the region of Japan, but a standard tatami mat is about 1.8 meters by 0.9 meters, or about 5.9 feet by 3.0 feet. In Tokyo, they are a little smaller, about 1.76 meters by 0.88 meters.
• One tatami mat is equal to 1.53-square meters or 16.5-square feet.
• Most Japanese-style rooms in apartments are six, eight, or ten-tatami mats in size.
• In apartment floor plans, you will sometimes even see western-style rooms described in terms of the number of tatami mats (jyou), rather than square meters.

Jyou in Square Meters and Square Feet

The following chart shows the square meter and square feet equivalent for Japanese jyou.

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