In recent years you may have heard people refer to March 14th as Satoshi no Hi (サトシの日), or "Satoshi Day," a special holiday that comes around every year where fans get together and celebrate the main character of the original Pocket Monsters TV series. But what is "Satoshi Day," exactly? And is it officially recognized at all?

Explanation

So the first question you might ask yourself is "Why March 14th?" What is it about this date in particular that makes it all about Satoshi? It's not the character's birthday, as far as we know (though that's a topic for another article), nor is it voice actor Rica Matsumoto's birthday (that's in November). It's also not the date when Satoshi won either of his big tournaments -- the Alola League was won in September 2019, and the Pokémon World Championship was won in November 2022. So then what is it?

The answer is that the numbers that make up the March 14th date, 314, can also be interpreted as spelling out the name "Sa-to-shi" when using the Japanese system of wordplay known as goroawase (語呂合わせ). In the Japanese language, each number has multiple pronunciations depending on context, much to the chagrin of Japanese language learners the world over. The chart below, which is also on the Wikipedia page linked to above, shows all the different ways each number can be pronounced.

Number	Kun'yomi reading	On'yomi readings	Transliterations from English readings
0	maru, ma, wa	rei, re	oh, zero, ze
1	hitotsu, hito, hi	ichi, i	wan
2	futatsu, fu, futa, ha	ni, ji, aru	tsu, tsuu, tuu
3	mittsu, mi	san, sa, za	su, surii
4	yon, yo, yottsu	shi	foh, faa, ho
5	itsutsu, itsu, i	go, ko, ga, ka	faibu, faivu
6	muttsu, mu	roku, ro, ri, ra, ru, ryuu	shikkusu
7	nana, nanatsu, na	shichi	sebun, sevun
8	yattsu, ya	hachi, ha, ba, pa	eito
9	kokonotsu, ko	kyuu, ku, gu	nain
10	toh, to, ta	ju, ji	te, ten

If you scan through the chart above, you can see how you can make the word "Sa-to-shi" by searching for the numbers that can be read as "sa," "to," and "shi." So, "sa" is 3, "to" is 10, and "shi" is 4. If you convert that to the month/date format that Japan uses (and also interpret the 10 and 4 together as 10 + 4 = 14) you get 3/14, or March 14th.

And so, March 14th becomes Satoshi's Day.

So is "Satoshi Day" official?

While the connection between a character and a specific date might be a cute little thing fans point out, as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to be recognized officially the way, say, "Pokémon Day" (February 27th) has been. For example, let's take a look at the X (Twitter) account anipoke_PR, the official account for the animated TV series, and see what they've been posting on March 14th each year:

March 15th, 2024 (Friday)	10:00 JST Information about a contest to win a set of postcards featuring images from the show's current opening theme.
	15:00 JST A promo for that night's Pocket Monsters (2023) episode, "The White Zygarde from the Ruinous Earthquake" focused on Gibeon.
	18:00 JST Another promo, this one focusing on Liko, Roy, Dot, and Amethio.
	19:25 JST A post celebrating Liko's Nyarote evolving into Masquernya.
	19:29 JST A trailer for the final episode of Pocket Monsters Rayquaza Rising and a teaser for Pocket Monsters Mega Voltage.
	19:30 JST The key visual for Pocket Monsters Mega Voltage.
	19:35 JST Information about the Pocket Monsters Mega Voltage "Start Dash Campaign" taking place at Pokémon Center stores across Japan.
	19:45 JST A look back at the episode that aired earlier that night, "The White Zygarde from the Ruinous Earthquake."
March 14th, 2024 (Thursday)	15:02 JST Screenshots from Pocket Monsters (2023) Episode 43 "A Challenge from the Explorers," which was scheduled to air the following day.
	17:00 JST A key animation sketch of Sango from that same episode.
March 14th, 2023 (Tuesday)	17:00 JST The account tells its followers that the ending theme for the Pocket Monsters Mezase Pokémon Master episode that had aired the previous Friday, "Strike Back, Rocket-Dan!, is the classic anipoke song Maemuki Rocket-Dan.
	19:00 JST A post highlighting Kojirou's Manene's role in the March 10th episode of Pocket Monsters Mezase Pokémon Master.
March 14th, 2022 (Monday)	15:00 JST A Japanese poem is written about Bachinkey for the Pocket Monsters (2019) episode that aired that previous Friday, Episode 101 "The One Stick Bachinkey!"
March 14th, 2021 (Sunday)	10:00 JST The account posts a special banner to commemorate the Japanese holiday "White Day," which also takes place on March 14th.
	10:01 JST A second "White Day" banner post.
	15:00 JST Mojacookie's comic for Pocket Monsters (2019) Episode 59 "The Lost Sarunori! Who's Its Trainer!?"
	17:00 JST The answer to the previous week's AniPoké Riddle is revealed to be Sarunori.
March 14th, 2020 (Saturday)	10:00 JST An original piece of artwork by Shuhei Yasuda to celebrate White Day.
	17:00 JST A promo for Pocket Monsters (2019) Episode 017 "Hibanny and the Flaming Kick! Moving Toward Tomorrow!!," which was scheduled to air the following day.

The anipoke_PR X (Twitter) account did not exist in March 2019 (it was initially set up in late 2019 to promote the new-at-the-time Pocket Monsters (2019) TV series), but six years' worth of data makes it clear that, at least as far as this social media account is concerned, "Satoshi Day" is not really a thing.

I also haven't been able to find the phrase Satoshi no Hi (サトシの日) on any other official website or social media account. There are plenty of fansites and social media accounts that talk about the day, sure, but none of those are official in any capacity.

And since "Satoshi Day" is not an officially recognized holiday, the TV show's PR team therefore isn't going to be scheduling any Satoshi-related announcements or other campaigns on that day because of its holiday status. The day after Pokémon Day 2025 a "big announcement" regarding the animated series was teased to be taking place on March 14th, and that had some fans believing that it being scheduled for "Satoshi Day" was a sign that they were going to maybe announce the character's return to the animated series. But, that turned out to not be the case at all.

Is it possible the show's PR team knew that fans consider March 14th to be "Satoshi Day," and so they scheduled an announcement for that date so they could then sit back and watch as the fans' imaginations ran absolutely wild? Sure, I'd say so. The anipoke PR team is actually an incredibly shrewd group of people who have done some really brilliant stuff in the past; that time they chose to announce Satoshi leaving the animated series and the start of the Liko and Roy show on the exact same day as the 25th anniversary of the Pokémon Shock incident, knowing full well the former would completely distract everyone from the latter, instantly comes to mind. But officially, March 14th being "Satoshi Day" has no bearing on when and what the show promotes.

Conclusion

While "Satoshi Day" is not an officially recognized holiday like, say, "Pokémon Day" is, that doesn't mean fans can't still use it as an excuse to celebrate the ten-year-old kid Pokémon Trainer from Masara Town. So draw your fanart, and make your celebratory posts about the character! Go nuts! But, let's also keep in mind that it's very unlikely the powers that be will ever use this fan-made holiday to announce anything significant regarding the character.

---