Japanese Shoe Sizes Explained

The Japanese scale is built on the Mondopoint principle: the size number is literally the length of your foot in centimetres. Measure heel to longest toe, read off the figure, and that is your JP size. Sizes step up in 0.5cm increments — 24, 24.5, 25, 25.5 — so a half-size in Japan is a precise 5mm of extra room rather than the vaguer fraction the US and UK scales use. Because the label describes your foot directly, there is nothing to interpret: a 26cm foot wears JP 26.

Crucially, JP sizing is unisex. There is no men's/women's offset, so a man and a woman with identical 25cm feet both buy JP 25. That is a sharp contrast with the abstract US, UK and EU scales, where the same physical foot is given different numbers depending on gender and country. Japan skips that layer of translation entirely, which is exactly why JP sizes make such a dependable common reference when you are comparing footwear across markets.

Because a JP size is anchored to centimetres, you can read straight across to the other systems using the table above. JP 24 lands at about a women's US 7.5, while JP 26 is roughly a men's US 8.5 — and the EU column climbs in Paris points, the ⅔cm-per-size unit that gives European numbering its larger, more tightly spaced figures. Treat every cross-reference as approximate: lasts vary by brand, so the same JP 25 can feel half a size different between two makers.

The one wrinkle JP sizing does not have is the women's-versus-men's US split. American sizing runs women roughly 1.5 sizes above men for the same foot, so a single JP number maps to two different US numbers depending on the chart you read. When you convert, make sure you are looking at the right gender column — the foot length in centimetres is the universal anchor that keeps the comparison honest, so if in doubt, match on the cm figure rather than the size label.

If you are buying from a Japanese maker — ASICS, Mizuno, Onitsuka Tiger and others — the centimetre size is usually printed right on the box and the tongue label. That means once you have measured your foot, you can skip conversion altogether: match your foot length in centimetres to the cm figure on the box and you have your size. It is the most direct route to a good fit, with no chart in between.

When a Japanese brand also ships to Western markets, the packaging often carries both the JP (cm) size and a US or EU equivalent. Trust the cm number first — it is the measurement the shoe was actually built around — and use the converted figure only as a sanity check. If the box shows a cm value that matches your measured foot, you can buy with confidence even when the US or EU label looks unfamiliar.