Reading the Japanese clock: Are times a-changin'?

Japan Times

8 hours ago

First, the good news: Clocks in Japan tick just the same as they do everywhere else in the world, so there's no need to know the Japanese language to know the time.
That being said, it's certainly helpful to know how to tell the time in Japanese, and understand all the nuances compared to English.
The time is given in 時 (ji, hours), 分 (fun, minutes) and, depending on the degree of precision, 秒 (byō, seconds). The number that contains the hour normally gets the Sino-Japanese reading, aka the 音読み (onyomi), except for 4 o'clock, which is 4yoji rather than shiji. For 7 o'clock, shichiji is more common than nanaji — though the latter is also possible. And 9 o'clock reads kuji, not kyūji.
Also note that, unlike in English, Japan has a 'zero o'clock,' or 零時 (reiji), which can mean both midnight and high noon.
Like in English, a 12- rather than 24-hour system is common, specified only where necessary by 午前 (gozen, a.m.) and 午後 (gogo, p.m.). Since Japanese does almost everything the other way round, these two terms precede the time stamp, as in 午前9 時 (gozen kuji, 9 a.m.) or 午後5時 (gogo goji, 5 p.m.).
Places with very late service hours, like nightclubs or ramen shops, may sometimes list times beyond 24, such as 27時 (nijūshichiji, 27 o'clock), meaning 3 a.m. In Japan, some days really do seem to last longer than 24 hours.
As mentioned above, the counter for minutes is 'fun,' but it often contracts into '-pun' — just compare 5分 (gofun) and 10分 (juppun). As to the latter, purists like to point out that it should actually be pronounced 'jippun' rather than 'juppun,' which is in fact the more traditional reading. That's because the numeral 10 originally read じふ (jifu) and only later collapsed into today's じゅう (jū). Accordingly, ji- rather than ju- used to be the base form for contractions with subsequent words like 分. However, in a 2005 survey by the Agency of Cultural Affairs, 75% of respondents said they preferred the ju- reading, and the form was officially added to the list of possible '10' readings in 2010. So both juppun and jippun are fine for 10分, and the same obviously holds for 20分, 30分, 40分 and 50分.
There is no common word for 'quarter,' so 'quarter past' is just 15分 (jūgofun, 15 minutes). There is a word for 'half' though, whose reading by mere coincidence closely resembles the English word: 半 (han). So 'half past three' would be 3時半 (sanjihan).
Like in English, times past the 30-minute mark are commonly expressed with reference to the approaching hour. So when it's coming up to 12:00, you'd say 12時15分前 (jūniji jūgofun-mae, 11:45), 12時10分前 (jūniji juppun-mae, 11:50) and so on. We'll come back to this reading in a second.
Both hours and minutes are obligatory in Japanese clock time. That means, unlike in English, you can't shorten an expression to 'ten fifteen' when you mean to say 10:15. In Japanese you'll have to say 10時15分 (jūji jūgofun). Abbreviating it to jū jūgo will make it largely unintelligible even to most benevolent listeners.
Another key difference lies in word order. In English, we say things like '10 past five' or 'quarter to eight,' with the minute part coming before the hour. In Japanese, the hour always comes first. So '10 minutes past five' is 5時10分 (goji juppun), literally '5 o'clock 10 minutes.'
A lively discussion recently emerged about the meaning of the phrase 10分前 (juppun-mae). Take a term like 8時10分前 (hachiji juppun-mae), which, in word-by-word rendition, is '8-o'clock-10-minutes-before.' While most older folks, this one included, agree that this is supposed to mean 7:50, younger people often understand it to refer to the time slot just prior to 8:10.
At the heart of this generational time gap — of no less than almost 20 minutes, to be sure — is a different syntactic analysis of the term with respect to 前 (mae, before/front). In the traditional reading, the suffix tells us to subtract 10 minutes from 8 o'clock, thus 7:50. In the new reading, by contrast, the scope of 前 covers the whole time stamp. That makes it 8:10 minus a few minutes, like say 8:08 or so. A syntactic representation of the two terms — in case you needed one — would be [[8時] 10分前] for the 7:50 reading, and [[8時10分]前] for the 8:08 reading.
Perhaps more intuitively, the difference can also be understood if we put in the nominal connector の (no). In the 7:50 reading, it goes in after the hour — 8時の10分前 (hachiji no juppun-mae) — whereas for the 8:08 reading it occurs only after the minutes — 8時10分の前 (hachiji juppun no mae).
From a pragmatic point of view, the newer interpretation may actually seem more truthful. If it's still only 7:50, first putting it into the '8 o'clock' range, only to make it short of 10 minutes right afterward does feel a bit like overbidding. The Gen Z reading of 'a little before 8:10' avoids such unkept promises.
The new reading may also indicate changing social practices. In the old days, an 8:08 reading just wouldn't seem likely because there was neither need nor technical equipment for such geeky precision. In fact, if back in the 1980s a friend had told me to meet up at 8:08, that might have spelled the end of that friendship. But with smartphones and navigation now omnipresent, it doesn't appear that strange at all if someone on their way texts you they'll be there by 'a little prior to 8:10.'
Time may be universal, but how we talk about it is not. Whether you say jippun or juppun, whether you're an 'old-school' 7:50 type or part of the new 8:08 wave, it all goes to show that, yes — times they are a-changin'.