On April 30, Japanese Emperor Akihito will abdicate, literally ending an era. For in Japan the years are counted not just using the internationally standard, Gregorian calendar, but by gengo, or ‘era name’, that counts up from the coronation of a new emperor until his death, or as in the current circumstance, abdication.

The Heisei era

Akihito’s coronation in January 1989 had marked the beginning of what is known as the Heisei era, and the end of the ‘Showa’ period of his predecessor, Emperor Hirohito. This year, 2019, will be split between Heisei 31, the 31st year of Akihito’s reign until the end of April, after which it will become Reiwa 1, the first year of the Emperor elect, Naruhito’s rule.

But gengo are not just ways of counting years. They also encapsulate a national mood, the zeitgeist. A new era name stops the clock for the nation psychologically, allowing an opportunity for taking stock and recalibrating.

The Meiji era (literally: enlightened rule), January 1868-July 1912, is best remembered as a period of Western-inspired modernisation, while the Showa gengo (literally: enlightened harmony), December 1926-January 1989, is associated with both Japan’s rapid post-war economic development, but also the militarism of the Second World War.

It is Heisei, however, that is on the nation’s mind currently. In the dying days of the era, there is an ongoing attempt to grapple with how best to define the essence of the last three decades. Heisei is composed of two kanji (Chinese characters used in the Japanese language) that taken together mean ‘achieving peace’.

On the surface, the gengo would appear apposite. Through the Heisei decades Japan has eschewed war and continued to be among the world’s more pacifist nations. Emperor Akihito himself worked hard to confront Japan’s past military expansionism, including several expressions of remorse and apology for his country’s wartime actions.

And yet, Heisei has also been characterised by unfulfilled potential and a spate of natural disasters. In 1989, when the era began, Japan was at the pinnacle of its economic might. That same year, Sony acquired Hollywood’s Columbia Pictures and Mitsubishi Estate bought New York’s iconic Rockefeller Center. Japan appeared poised for global domination.

Instead, the ‘bubble economy’ collapsed, leading to ‘lost decades’ of economic stagnation and deflation. And while the meteoric rise of China dwarfed Japan’s regional and international heft, earthquakes and tsunamis ravaged the archipelago. For many, Heisei conjures up the horrors of the 1995 Hanshin earthquake that destroyed Kobe city, and the 2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami that killed over 20,000 people and triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

Consequently, the commencement of the new era, recently announced after months of deliberation as Reiwa, is widely seen as a chance to put some of these traumas behind and to define new hopes for a new epoch.

Reiwa can be interpreted to mean ‘auspicious’ (rei) ‘harmony’ (wa). But, given that kanji can often be understood in multiple ways, it is also possible to read rei as ‘orderly’ and wa as ‘Japanese’. The latter reading has some Japanese uncomfortable with its authoritative nuance, particularly within the context of the current, right-wing government’s emphasis on nationalism as a cornerstone of policy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was open in disclosing the fact that the choice of era name was made to reflect pride in Japan’s ostensible uniqueness. For the first time in history the two kanji comprising the gengo were taken from Japanese classical literature, rather than Chinese classics, the traditional source for era names.

The new gengo is derived from an ancient collection of Japanese poetry called Man’yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) that feature poems composed between 600 CE and 759 CE. Commentators have been quick to draw a link between this decision to distance the gengo from Chinese literature and Japan’s contemporary rivalry with China.

Name notwithstanding, Emperor-elect Naruhito’s Reiwa era will face a formidable set of challenges. The country’s rapidly ageing society and declining population mean that economic growth will require either a huge increase in the number of immigrants or a major technological breakthrough. Japan will also need to innovate to ensure it is not left out of the high-tech race for leadership at a time when artificial intelligence and robotics are reshaping the manufacturing ecosystem. Moreover, China’s dominance in both the economic and strategic realms, coupled with the growing unpredictability of the U.S.’s commitment to Japan’s defence will test Tokyo’s strategic thinking, forcing it to seek out new allies and accommodations.

Logistical challenges

But first, the dawn of Reiwa will necessitate a series of more immediate, logistical changes. Government documents, stamps, newspapers, driving licences, and calendars will all need to switch to the new gengo from the Heisei system that’s been in use for the last three decades. Computer systems across the archipelago are hurriedly being updated for the May 1 handover in what some fear might prove to be Japan’s Y2K moment.

In his play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare famously asked, “What’s in a Name?” In Japan at least, the answer would appear to be: A Lot.

Pallavi Aiyar is an author and journalist based in Tokyo