Emperor's exit resets Japan calendar

Aug 28, 2018, 02.08 PM IST

End of an era

The abdication of Japan's Emperor Akihito next year will be quite literally the end of an era, the Heisei era of his rule, and behind closed doors, talks on the next era have begun.

Japan is the only country in the world still using Chinese-style imperial calendars. It might be 2018 in much of the world, but in Japan it is Heisei 30, or 30 years into Akihito's reign.

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The calendar

While the Gregorian calendar is widely used in Japan, imperial dates feature on government documents, newspapers, and commercial calendars.

"It is easier to imagine what the time was like if you have eras," said Kunio Kowaguchi, president of major calendar maker Todan.

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Start of a new era

Japan has had nearly 250 eras or "gengo" since adopting the system in the 7th century.

In the past, emperors would switch era names mid-reign to make a fresh start after natural disasters or crises.

But more recently, an era has run the entire length of a monarch's rule.

With just months to go before Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne in May 2019, speculation about the new name is growing.

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The transition

The new imperial era will be the first since the IT revolution, and the tech sector is also girding for the transition.

It has inspired comparisons to the "Y2K" bug ahead of the year 2000, when experts worried about a tech apocalypse fearing that computers would not understand the new date.

"What is largely different from the time of the Y2K problem or the switch to the Heisei period is that IT is widely used and information is passed around among internet-capable devices," said Kazunori Ishii, a spokesman at Microsoft's Japan arm.

"We can't predict exactly what will happen," he said, though he added that major disruption was "unlikely".

Software used in Japan that converts between Western and imperial dates will need to be updated with the new era, and code and fonts for the new name will also need to be created.

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The preprations

In pic: Shows a worker checking a printed sheet of the 2019 calendar for May at a factory of Japan's major calender maker Todan in the town of Ami, Ibaraki prefecture.

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The complete calender

In pic: This shows a worker checking the completed 2019 calendar at a factory of Japan's major calender maker Todan in Ami Town, Ibaraki prefecture.

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