Se

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

30 tsubo, about 99.17 m².

1 se = 99.17355372 square meters (approximately).

About the se

Between the humble tsubo and the field-sized tan sits the se, a plot of 30 tsubo. In square metres that is exactly 12,000/121, or about 99.17, which is just under one are, the metric land unit of 100 square metres. A se measures roughly ten metres by ten, a small garden or a slice of a paddy.

The scale is decimal above this point. Ten se make one tan, and a hundred se make one cho, so the se works as the first step in the farmland ladder rather than a unit with a life of its own. Property listings today seldom use it, and it is mostly met in old land records and in conversion tables.

Its exact size comes from the Meiji legal definition. The 1891 law set the shaku at 10/33 metre, and the tsubo as the square of six shaku, so every larger land unit built on the tsubo inherited a fixed metric value. Before that, the shaku itself varied by era and use.

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Wikipedia: Shaku (unit); Wikipedia: Tsubo

Se conversion chart

1 se expressed in every other area unit:

More Japanese units

• jō (tatami mat) (area)
• tsubo (area)
• tan (area)
• chō (area) (area)
• sun (length)
• shaku (length)
• ken (length)
• jō (length)
• chō (length)
• ri (Japanese) (length)
• monme (weight & mass)
• kin (weight & mass)
• kan (weight & mass)
• gō (volume)
• shō (volume)
• tō (volume)

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