When I talk about Japanese media, I have on occasion mentioned Japanese era names such as Showa, Heisei and Reiwa. Specific times that I recall mentioning them are when I discussed the Godzilla franchise and when I touched on Shigeru Mizuki’s manga “Showa: A History of Japan” but there may’ve be other times I cannot recall. Anyway, someone asked me the other day what I meant whenever I mentioned those names. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what exactly the Japanese era system is.
The first thing to realise is that this system works very differently from the calendar system we’re familiar with, the Gregorian calendar, in that the years aren’t counted continuously and instead restarts at the beginning of each era. This system was originally imported from China around 645 CE and, barring a few periods of disuse, has been continuously used in Japan since then.
Now for the system itself. With each enthronement of an emperor, a name is selected that consists of two kanji, can be easily read and written and represents the ideals of Japan. This name will then represent the new era, for example the current age is the Reiwa era, and will progress year by year until the emperor either passes away or abdicates. Then, at the next enthronement, a new era name is chosen and the cycle repeats.
Therefore, the most basic way to describe the Japanese era system is that each era represents the reign of an emperor and the years are based on how many years that monarch has been in charge. While I’m sure this sounds quite odd and confusing, the most important eras for most people enthused with modern Japanese culture to know are Meiji (1868-1912), Taishō (1912-1926), Showa (1926-1989), Heisei (1989-2019) and Reiwa (2019-).
I think it’s important to note that Japan also uses the Gregorian calendar alongside their era system so you can still get by with the regular calendar. However, being aware of the Japanese era system is very helpful when researching topics about Japan as well as illuminating a lot of interesting terms and topics.
Let me know your thoughts on what exactly the Japanese era system is, whether you were aware of this system before this article, your thoughts on the system itself and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!