Japanese Room Size Units (Tatami and Square Meters)

How to read listings that say things like 1K, 6畳, or 30㎡.

Japanese property listings use a few housing terms that are unfamiliar at first.

Layout terms

• 1R: one-room studio
• 1K: one room plus a small separate kitchen
• 1DK: one room plus a dining kitchen
• 1LDK: one room plus a living-dining-kitchen area

Tatami as a size unit

A room may be described as 6畳 or 8畳. This gives you a rough sense of floor space, but it is still important to measure carefully before buying furniture.

Japanese apartments are often smaller than US apartments, so product dimensions matter a lot.