Chief Cabinet SecretaryYoshihide Suga (later to become Prime Minister) announcing to Japan and the world the name of the new Imperial era at a press conferenceJapanese office workers watching the announcement on a live television broadcast
A shortlist of names for the new era was drawn up by a nine-member expert panel comprising seven men and two women with the cabinet selecting the final name from the shortlist.[5] The nine experts were:[6]
The day after the announcement, the government revealed that the other candidate names under consideration had been Eikō (英弘),[7] Kyūka (久化),[8] Kōshi or Kōji (広至),[7][9] Banna or Banwa (万和),[7][9] and Banpo or Banhō (万保),[7][9][10] three of which were sourced from two Japanese works, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.[11] Official pronunciations and meanings of these names were not released, although the reading of Eikō was leaked; the other readings are speculative.[9]
A crowd watching the televised announcement on a giant screen next to Shinjuku Station
The kanji characters for Reiwa are derived from the Man'yōshū, an eighth-century (Nara period) anthology of waka poetry. The kotobagaki (headnote) attached to a group of 32 poems (815–846) in Volume 5 of the collection, composed on the occasion of a poetic gathering to view the plum blossoms, reads as follows:[citation needed]
Original Kanbun text:
于時、初春令月、氣淑風和、梅披鏡前之粉、蘭薫珮後之香。[12]
Classical Japanese translation (kanbun kundoku):
時に、初春の令月にして、気淑く風和ぎ、梅は鏡前の粉を披き、蘭は珮後の香を薫す。 Toki ni, shoshun no reigetsu ni shite, kiyoku kaze yawaragi, ume wa kyōzen no ko o hiraki, ran wa haigo no kō o kaorasu.[13]
English translation:
It was in new spring, in a fair (rei) month,
When the air was clear and the wind a gentle (wa) breeze.
Plum flowers blossomed a beauty's charming white
And the fragrance of the orchids was their sweet perfume.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry provided an English-language interpretation of Reiwa as "beautiful harmony", to dispel reports that "Rei" (令) here is translated as "command" or "order"[14][4][15] – which are the significantly more common meanings of the character, especially so in both modern Japanese and Chinese.[15][16] The Foreign Ministry also noted that "beautiful harmony" is rather an explanation than an official translation or a legally binding interpretation.[15]
Prior to and naturally irrespective of the era announcement, within the context of the Chinese essay in the Man'yōshū from which the excerpt is cited, the expression 令月 (which characters constitute the word reigetsu in modern Japanese) has generally been academically translated or interpreted as "wonderful" or "good (Japanese: yoi) month" in published scholarly works, such as by Alexander Vovin in English as wonderful month in his 2011 commentary and translation of Book 5,[17] or by Susumu Nakanishi in Japanese as yoi tsuki (好い月) in his commentary and translation into modern Japanese that was published in 1978.[18]
Susumu Nakanishi, a scholar of Japanese literature, particularly of the Man'yōshū, is widely believed to have conceived the name Reiwa.[19][20] Following the announcement of Reiwa in 2019, Nakanishi advocated for understanding the character rei (令) of the era name through the help of the Japanese word uruwashii (うるわしい, fair (of sight, weather), beautiful, fine (also of mood) etc.), stressing that in the traditional dictionaries (such as Erya or the Kangxi Dictionary), the word 令 is explained with the word 善.[21] Nakanishi criticized the understanding of the
rei (令) in Reiwa as Japanese utsukushii (美しい, generally meaning "beautiful"), which was propagated by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pointing out that neither the etymology nor the exact sense are appropriate.[21]
Novelty
Extract of Volume 5 of the Man'yōshū from which the kanji characters for "Reiwa" are derived
Robert Campbell, director-general of National Institute of Japanese Literature in Tokyo, provided an official televised interpretation to NHK, regarding the characters based on the poem,[clarification needed] noting that "Rei" is an auspicious wave of energy of the plum blossoms carried by the wind, and "Wa", the general character of peace and tranquility.[26]
Accordingly, the name marks the 248th era name designated in Japanese history.[27] While the "wa" character 和 has been used in 19 previous era names, the "rei" character 令 has never appeared before.[28] The character appeared in a proposed era name in 1864—Reitoku (令徳)—that the ruling Tokugawa shogunate rejected, as it could be interpreted as the emperor commanding (rei) the Tokugawa.[29]
On the other hand, according to Masaaki Tatsumi (辰巳正明), professor of Japanese literature, and Masaharu Mizukami (水上雅晴), professor of Chinese philosophy, interviewed by the Asahi Shimbun shortly after the announcement was made, the phrase has an earlier source in ancient Chinese literature dating back to the second century AD, on which the Man'yōshū usage is allegedly based:[30]
Then comes young spring, in a fine month,
When the wind is mild and the air clear.
Plains and swamps are overgrown with verdure
And the hundred grasses become rank and thick.
— translation by Liu Wu-chi, An Introduction to Chinese Literature (1990)[31]
Implementation
Currency
According to the Japan Mint, all coins with the new era name will be released by October 2019. It takes three months to make preparations such as creating molds in order to input text or pictures. The Mint will prioritize creating 100- and 500-yen coins due to their high mintage and circulation, with an anticipated release by the end of July 2019.[32][needs update]
Anticipating the coming of the new era, the Unicode Consortium reserved a code point (U+32FF㋿SQUARE ERA NAME REIWA)[33] in September 2018 for a new glyph which will combine half-width versions of Reiwa's kanji, 令 and 和, into a single character; similar code points exist for earlier era names, including Shōwa (U+337C㍼SQUARE ERA NAME SYOUWA) and Heisei (U+337B㍻SQUARE ERA NAME HEISEI) periods.[34] The resulting new version of Unicode, 12.1.0, was released on 7 May 2019.[35][36]
On 19 November 2019, Shinzo Abe became the longest-serving prime minister of Japan and surpassed the previous 2,883-day record of Katsura Tarō.[38] Abe also beat Eisaku Satō's record of 2,798 consecutive days on 23 August 2020.[39] He resigned for health reasons in September 2020 and was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga.[40]
In early 2020, Japan began to suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic as several countries reported a significant increase in cases by March 2020.[41] Japan and other countries donated masks, medical equipment, and money to China.[42][better source needed]
In June 2020, Fugaku was declared the most powerful supercomputer in the world with a performance of 415.53 PFLOPS.[43] Fugaku also ranked first place in computational methods performance for industrial use, artificial intelligence applications, and big data analytics. It was co-developed by the RIKEN research institute and Fujitsu.[44]
A year later than originally scheduled, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were held in the summer of 2021.[45]
In September 2021, Suga announced he would not stand in the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, effectively ending his term as prime minister. He was succeeded by Fumio Kishida who took office as prime minister on 4 October 2021. Kishida was elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a week prior. He was officially confirmed as the country's 100th prime minister following a parliamentary vote.[46]
The first general election under the Reiwa era took place on 31 October 2021. The LDP retained its majority despite losing seats.[47]
In July 2022, the former prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by Tetsuya Yamagami in Nara.[50] By comparison, Japan had only 10 gun related deaths from 2017 to 2021 and 1 gun fatality in 2021.[51]
On 16 December 2022, Second Kishida Cabinet announced a departure from Japan's defense-oriented policy by acquiring counterstrike capabilities and a defense budget increase to 2% of GDP by 2027.[52] This comes amidst growing security concerns over China, North Korea and Russia.[52] This will make Japan the 3rd largest defense-spender (¥43 trillion ($315 billion) after the United States and China.[53]
^"真字萬葉集卷第五雜歌0815". Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019. 天平二年正月十三日，萃于帥老大伴旅人之宅，申宴會也。于時，初春令月，氣淑風和。梅披鏡前之粉，蘭薰珮後之香。加以，曙嶺移雲，松掛羅而傾蓋，夕岫結霧，鳥封穀而迷林。庭舞新蝶，空歸故鴈。於是，蓋天坐地，促膝飛觴。忘言一室之裏，開衿煙霞之外。淡然自放，快然自足。若非翰苑，何以攄情。請紀落梅之篇，古今夫何異矣。宜賦園梅，聊成短詠。
^Vovin, Alexander (2011). Man'yōshū: Book 5, a new English translation containing the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary. Folkestone: Global Oriental. ISBN978-1-906876-20-3.
^Nakanishi, Susumu (8 August 1978). Man'yōshū Zen'yakuchū Genbun-tsuki (Ichi) 万葉集 全訳注原文付(一) [Man'yōshū: a Full Translation and Commentary Containing the Original Text (Part 1)] (in Japanese). Kodansha Bunko. ISBN978-4061313828.
^Ozawa, Satoshi (1 April 2019). "「日本が困難な時、万葉集がはやる」 令和は歴史的転換". Asahi News Digital (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
^Jennifer Lind (23 December 2022). "Japan Steps Up". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 23 December 2022.
^"【能登半島地震】県内死者５７人に 約３万２０００人避難" [[Noto Peninsula Earthquake] 57 people died in the prefecture, approximately 32,000 people evacuated] (in Japanese). Hokkoku. 2 January 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
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