On April 30, 2019, the Japanese emperor, Emperor Akihito, announced to abdicate at the age of 85, and on the next day, May 1, 2019, his son ascended to the throne and became Emperor Naruhito for the new Reiwa Era of Japan. This year’s October and November would be the months of celebration in Japan due to the enthronement dated to start on October 22 and a large festival surrounding it starting on November 9. Here are a few things to know about Reiwa to help understand the significance of these celebrations better.
This Abdication was a Special Case
The traditional Japanese succession of throne was maintained for more than 200 years: after the current emperor passed away, his (there was no female emperor in Japanese history so far) first legitimate successor would ascend the throne and change the era name, and a few exceptions happened in the years of major disasters such as earthquake and drought. However, as Emperor Akihito expressed his intention to abdicate when he was still alive due to his declining health, Japanese government published a special legal permission for the 85-year-old emperor to do so.
Multiple Meanings of Reiwa
Including Reiwa, at least six potential era names were came up with by a team of scholars and officials before the new era announcement, and Reiwa was finally chosen. It was interesting to mention that Reiwa was the first Japanese era name that did not come from Chinese traditional classics. Reiwa derived from Japan’s oldest known poetry anthology “Manyoshu” (万葉集). The original text read as “shoshun no reigetsu ni shite, kiyoku kaze yawaragi,” depicting the harmonic and peaceful image in the early spring. The Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe interpreted Reiwa as “culture is born and grows when people come together and care for each other beautifully.”
Besides, there was another unofficial interpretation of Reiwa. The character Rei 令 in Japanese can mean “commands” or “order” while Wa 和 can mean “peace” or “harmony,” and thus some Western media translated Reiwa as “order and harmony,” stressing on its militaristic connotation.
Influences of Changing Era Name
In Japan, there are two common calendars used to refer to a year; one is the commonly used western calendar, and the other is counting based on the current Japanese era. For example, the year of 2019 is also Heisei 31st Year and Reiwa 1st Year. According to a recent survey in Japan, one third of Japanese people still use era-based calendar most of the time. Given that this number was 82% in 1975, the declination is evident and is believed to be caused by growing globalization. However, although this traditional calendar is not commonly used as in the past anymore, the change of era name is still an important event for Japanese people as they believe it indicates a new and better future.
It was also interesting to note that changing era name is also a serious computer system issue. As many companies and governmental institutions’ computer system use era-based calendar, it takes time to fix the system so that officially wrong dates such as Heisei 32nd Year would not appear. Some people appreciated Emperor Akihito for announcing the change of era name months ahead, so that the situation in which the emperor suddenly passes away, the era name changed in one day, and the programmers are unprepared for the mess would not happen this time.
