![](\"https:\/\/cdn.japantimes.2xx.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/n-eraname-z-20190402-870x647.jpg\")
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n a much-awaited moment that heralded the opening of a new chapter in Japan\u2019s history, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced Monday that the new Imperial era will be named Reiwa, taking one of the final steps toward initiating the nation\u2019s first imperial succession in three decades.<\/p>\n
Suga, who displayed a placard showing off the kanji characters for the new era, said the name was formulated based on a poem from \u201cManyoshu,\u201d the oldest existing compilation of Japanese poetry.<\/p>\n
The first character represents \u201cfortunate,\u201d while the second can be translated as \u201cpeace or harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the first time that the characters chosen were taken from Japanese classical literature. Prior era names had used kanji from Chinese literature.<\/p>\n
The poem in question described an\u00a0ume\u00a0<\/em>Japanese apricot flower in full bloom in early spring after surviving a cold winter.<\/p>\n The new era will start on May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne following the abdication of his father, Emperor Akihito, a day earlier.<\/p>\n The arrival of Reiwa will in turn end a 30-year run of the Heisei (\u201cachieving peace\u201d) Era, which began in Jan. 8, 1989.<\/p>\n Later in the day, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference that the government chose the kanji characters because they signify \u201ca culture being born and nurtured by people coming together beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n He also pointed out that \u201cManyoshu,\u201d which was compiled more than 1,200 years ago, contained poems by people of various social status, including emperors, noblemen and noblewomen, warriors and ordinary farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope the new\u00a0geng\u014d<\/i><\/em>\u00a0will take root among the public and be widely accepted by the people,\u201d Abe said, using the Japanese word for the era name.<\/p>\n The new era will be the 248th in the history of Japan, which has used the Chinese-style calendar system since 645. In modern times, each era has run the length of an emperor\u2019s reign.<\/p>\n What differentiated the arrival of the latest era from its past four predecessors \u2014 Heisei, Showa, Taisho and Meiji \u2014 is that the government announced its name while the reigning Emperor is still alive.<\/p>\n This is because Emperor Akihito \u2014 in a rare address to the nation in August 2016 \u2014 hinted at his desire to abdicate due to his advanced age, as opposed to his immediate predecessors who reigned until their deaths. His unprecedented address soon kicked off preparations for what will be the first abdication by a sitting Japanese monarch in around 200 years.<\/p>\n The naming of a new Imperial era is a significant event here. Gengo plays an integral role \u2014 both practically and psychologically \u2014 to the lives of Japanese people.<\/p>\n In a nation where gengo has long been cherished as a way of identifying a year \u2014 as in \u201cHeisei 31,\u201d which corresponds to 2019 \u2014 in many official documents and computer systems, its change has had far-reaching practical implications, too. Local municipality officials, computer engineers and calendar manufacturers, for example, have spent months preparing for necessary changes.<\/p>\n With gengo often seen as reflective of the zeitgeist, speculation had been rife about what the new era would be named.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" n a much-awaited moment that heralded...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15893,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892\/revisions\/15893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}