Square Inches to Jō (tatami Mat) (in² to jō)

1 square inch equals 0.0003903218 jō (tatami mat) exactly.

1 square inch = 0.0003903218 jō (tatami mat)

How to convert square inches to jō (tatami mat)

To convert square inches to jō (tatami mat), multiply the number of square inches by 0.0003903218. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply jō (tatami mat) by 2,561.988595 (rounded).

jō (tatami mat) = square inches × 0.0003903218

Example: 10 square inches = 0.003903218 jō (tatami mat).

Approximate value. Standards for the jō (tatami mat) varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Square Inch (in²)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

A square one inch on a side, exactly 6.4516 cm². Used for small parts and for pressure (pounds per square inch).

Latin uncia, one twelfth, gave English the inch, which Old English borrowed as ynce. A statute of Edward II in 1324 defined it as three barleycorns, dry and round, set end to end, and the barleycorn remained the base for centuries after 1066. The modern square inch rests on a 20th-century agreement: the United States adopted a yard of exactly 0.9144 meter on 1 July 1959, the United Kingdom followed effective 1 January 1964, and the inch became exactly 25.4 mm.

Squaring that gives exactly 6.4516 cm² for one square inch, and one square meter is about 1,550 of them. Its best-known descendant is the pound per square inch, psi, the pressure unit still used for American tires and air tanks: atmospheric pressure at sea level is about 14.7 psi, a car tire is typically inflated to around 32 psi above the surrounding air, and one psi is about 6.895 kilopascals. The square inch itself is common in the US and UK for small parts and printed material.

1 square inch = 0.00064516 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Square inch; Wikipedia: Inch; Wikipedia: Pounds per square inch

Jō (tatami Mat) (jō)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)Approximate value

Half a tsubo, about 1.653 m², the area of one tatami mat. Mats vary by region from about 1.44 to 1.82 m², and Japanese real-estate rules set a minimum of 1.62 m² per jō in advertisements.

Jō is the counter for tatami, the woven rush floor mats of Japanese rooms, and the word tatami comes from a verb meaning to fold or pile, since early mats were thin enough to be stacked away. Tatami began as seating for the aristocracy in the Heian period and covered whole rooms in samurai and temple houses by the Muromachi era. They reached ordinary homes only in the late 17th century.

Because a mat was a standard building module, rooms are still described as six jō or eight jō. A mat is about twice as long as it is wide, and size varies by region. Kyoto mats measure about 191 by 95.5 cm, around 1.82 m2, Nagoya mats about 1.65 m2 and Tokyo mats about 1.55 m2. Apartment-block mats can be smaller, near 1.44 m2.

Wikipedia takes the Nagoya mat as the reference, which makes one jō half a tsubo, exactly 200/121 m2 or about 1.653 m2, and that is the figure used here. A separate figure of 1.62 m2 is the minimum area per mat that Japanese property advertising rules allow when a room is described by its mat count, so it is a legal floor rather than a typical mat.

1 jō (tatami mat) = 1.652892562 square meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Wikipedia: Tatami; Real Estate Tokyo: Units used for real estate size in Japan

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