Japanese Eras
From Taika to Reiwa, With Some Lasting Months
Japan has used around 250 era names since 645, several of them under a year because a fire or a comet forced a reset. Showa is the long outlier.
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Japanese Eras
Six Tests Before Two Kanji Are Approved
Two characters, easy to write, never used before, no clash with a famous name, and no repeat of the initials M, T, S, H or R. The shortlist Reiwa beat.
Japanese Eras
The First Era Name Not Taken From China
Every earlier era name traced back to a Chinese classic. Reiwa was pulled from an eighth-century Japanese poetry preface, and that was the whole point.
Japanese Eras
1 April 2019, and the Board Held Up
Suga held the card up before midday, thirty years after Obuchi did the same for Heisei. What happened in the room, and why the name stayed sealed.
Japanese Eras
Choosing Two Kanji for the Next Thirty Years
Scholars submit candidates, a cabinet picks one, and a country repaints its forms. The rules a new era name must pass and who actually signs off.
Japanese Eras
Japanese Era Years: Meiji to Reiwa, Explained
Japan runs two calendars at once. Five eras, one subtraction each, and the two details that turn a simple conversion into a wrong answer.