Japan's new Imperial era named Reiwa

named ‘Reiwa’ Weeks of speculation ends ahead of Emperor Akihito’s abdication on May 1  Crowds gathered, a swarm of helicopters buzzed over central Tokyo and newspapers rushed to publish special editions as Japan revealed that the name of its new Imperial era will be “Reiwa”. The Reiwa era will begin on May 1 when Emperor Akihito abdicates and crown prince Naruhito ascends to the throne of the world’s oldest continuous monarchy. While almost unknown outside Japan, the name of the Imperial era — which forms the basis for the country’s calendar — has been the subject of weeks of feverish media speculation. Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, said the name Reiwa was intended to portray a “Japan where every person can have hope for tomorrow and their flowers can blossom fully”. For the first time the era’s name was taken from the Manyoshu, often translated as the “Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves”, an ancient collection of Japanese poetry dating from the eighth century. Previous era names have drawn from classical Chinese sources. The line in the poem is about plum blossoms blooming after cold weather and the intended reading for the two characters is to mean “good” or “auspicious”, and “harmony”. In a different reading, the character for “rei” is also used to mean “order” or “command”. Shares in Ray, a Japanese advertising company, jumped by 7.3 per cent while stock in Umenohana, a restaurant chain named after plum blossoms, jumped but fell back to trade 2.9 per cent higher on the day. Every Imperial reign in Japan has an era name separate from the name of the emperor. The reign of Emperor Hirohito was known as the Showa era while the reign of his son, Akihito, was the Heisei era. Era names are ever-present in Japanese life because they feature on almost every official form and document. They also mark psychological boundaries: the Showa era covered Japan’s war years and subsequent recovery; the Heisei era began in 1989, and spanned the so-called lost decades after Japan’s economic bubble burst. “Choosing from the Manyoshu is unusual but after reflecting on it I think it’s a pretty good decision,” said Hirofumi Yamamoto, a professor of history at Tokyo University. Mr Yamamoto said he was initially taken aback by the slightly authoritarian feel of the “rei” character, but the “good” or “splendid” meaning is equally valid and the character is often used to write given names. He said that Reiwa marked a shift away from political era names such as Heisei, which means “achieving peace”. Choosing a new era name is a complicated and involved process: it must be suitably symbolic, easy enough for school children to write, different to other recent era names, not widely forecast in advance and contain no characters closely associated with political or business interests. For example, the character “An”, meaning “stability”, was widely thought to be a contender for use in the new era name but it is also used to write the “A” in Abe, making it too contentious a choice. A committee of experts has spent months pondering the new era name but it was only revealed to Japan’s cabinet under conditions of strict secrecy just hours before the announcement. Emperor Akihito, who is 85 and has suffered ill health, first signalled his wish to step down in 2016. The handover has taken more than two years because Japan’s constitution has no provision for abdication. The country will take an unprecedented 10-day holiday from April 27 to May 7 to celebrate the abdication and the enthronement of the new emperor. The break has caused concern over the running of services, raising worries such as shortages at banks and disruption to international markets.