Difference between am/pm on north american clock system and Japanese gozen/gogo As a Japanese, I had found difficulty learning the concept of am/pm. Japanese language have similar concept as am/pm, which are gozen and gogo. Usually gozen is translated into AM, gogo is into PM. For example, 6am = gozen 6. Unfortunately it's not always the case. There is major difference in how to deal with 12pm or 12am. Because in Japanese 12-clock system, gozen 12 means noon, gogo 12 is midnight. If I mistakenly translate gozen 12(=noon) into 12am(=midnight), they mean completely different. I always make mistake like this. As a native Japanese, my sense is like this: time always counts up, like, gozen 0, gozen 1,,,,,, gozen 11, gozen 12. It's so confusing when I told it begins with 12 and followed by 1.... subtracting by 11? It doesn't make sense. It still confuses me practically, while I understand the difference enough to write this entry. Two years ago I went to an airport with my flight ticket which departs at 12pm. Subtracting 3 from 12, I went to the airport at 9pm. I realized I have to kill more than 10 hours. According to Japanese law "Dajoukantasshi Article 337", gozen 12 must be noon and gogo 12 must be midnight so there's no ambiguity.