On March 31, 2019 (EDT), Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that the name of the new era will be ”Reiwa,” and it’ll start being used from May 1st, 2019.
The name of the new era was chosen after hearing opinions from experts and Diet leaders. The first letter (令) means “fortunate” and the second letter (和) means “peace.“ According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihida Suga, this new era name was taken from a poem about plum blossoms from “Manyoshu” which is the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry. This was actually the first time that characters of the new era name were taken from Japanese literature, not Chinese literature.
Because era names are used widely in Japan like calendars, official documents, etc, Japan announced a month ahead in order to avoid disruption.
Era also represents the length of an emperor’s reign and typically decided and announced after the emperor passed away. However, Emperor Akihito is going to step down on April 30th, 2019. He’s the first Japanese monarch to do so in about 200 years.
Update: According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the official English translation of ”Reiwa” is “Beautiful Harmony.”
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