Japanese era names

The Japanese era name (年号, nengō, "year name"), also known as gengō (元号), is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element, a number, counts the years since the era began; as in many other systems, there is no year zero. For example, the first year of the Heisei period was 1989 CE, or "Heisei 1", so the year 2018 CE in this scheme is "Heisei 30".

As elsewhere in East Asia, the use of nengō was originally derived from Chinese Imperial practice, although the Japanese system is independent of the Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese era-naming systems. Unlike some of these other similar systems, Japanese era names are still in use. Government offices usually require era names and years for official papers.

The four era names used since the end of the Edo period in 1868 can be abbreviated by taking the first letter of their romanized names. For example, S55 means Shōwa 55 (i.e. 1980), and H22 stands for Heisei 22 (2010). At 62 years and 2 weeks, Shōwa is the longest era to date.


The current period is known as "Heisei" (平成). It started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito. His son, the 125th Emperor Akihito, acceded to the throne. It is scheduled to end on 30 April 2019, his planned date of Abdication.


External Timeline A graphical timeline is available at
Timeline of Japanese era names

The system on which the Japanese era names are based originated in China in 140 BCE, and was adopted by Japan in 645 CE, during the reign of Emperor Kōtoku.

The first era name to be assigned was "Taika" (大化), celebrating the political and organizational changes which were to flow from the great Taika reform (大化の改新) of 645. Although the regular practice of proclaiming successive era names was interrupted in the late seventh century, it was permanently re-adopted in 701 during the reign of Emperor Monmu (697–707). Since then, era names have been used continuously up through the present day.[1]

Historical nengō[]


In historical practice, the first day of a nengō (元年, gannen) starts whenever the emperor chooses; and the first year continues until the next lunar new year, which is understood to be the start of the nengō's second year.[2]

Era names indicate the various reasons for their adoption. For instance, the nengō Wadō (和銅), during the Nara period, was declared due to the discovery of copper deposits in Chichibu. Most nengō are composed of two kanji, except for a short time during the Nara period when four-kanji names were sometimes adopted to follow the Chinese trend. Tenpyō Kanpō (天平感宝), Tenpyō Shōhō (天平勝宝), Tenpyō Hōji (天平宝字) and Tenpyō Jingo (天平神護) are some famous nengō names that use four characters. Since the Heian period, Confucian thoughts and ideas have been reflected in era names, such as Daidō (大同), Kōnin (弘仁) and Tenchō (天長).[citation needed] Although there currently exist a total of 247 Japanese era names, only 72 kanji have been used in composing them. Out of these 72 kanji, 30 of them have been used only once, while the rest have been used repeatedly in different combinations.

Nengō in modern Japan[]

Mutsuhito assumed the throne in 1867, during the third year of the Keiō (慶応) era. On 23 October 1868, the era name was changed to "Meiji" (明治), and a "one reign, one era name" (一世一元, issei-ichigen) system was adopted, wherein era names would change only upon immediate imperial succession. This system is similar to the now-defunct Chinese system used since the days of the Ming Dynasty. The Japanese nengō system differs from Chinese practice, in that in the Chinese system the era name was not updated until the year following the emperor's death.

In modern practice, the first year of a nengō (元年, gannen) starts immediately upon the emperor's accession and ends on 31 December. Subsequent years follow the Gregorian calendar.

For example, the Meiji Era lasted until 30 July 1912, when the Emperor died and the Taishō (大正) era was proclaimed. 1912 is therefore known as both "Meiji 45" and "Taishō 1" (大正元年, Taishō gannen), although Meiji technically ended on 30 July with Mutsuhito's death.

This practice, implemented successfully since the days of Meiji but never formalized, became law in 1979 with the passage of the Era Name Law (元号法, gengō-hō). Thus, since 1868, there have only been four era names assigned: Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa and Heisei, each corresponding with the rule of only one emperor. Upon death, the emperor is thereafter referred to by the era of his reign. For example, Mutsuhito is posthumously known as "Emperor Meiji" (明治天皇, Meiji Tennō).

It is protocol in Japan that the reigning emperor be referred to as Tennō Heika (天皇陛下, "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor") or Kinjō Tennō (今上天皇, "current emperor"). To call the current emperor by the current era name, i.e. "Heisei", even in English, is a faux pas, as this is—and will be—his posthumous name. Use of the emperor's given name (i.e., "Akihito") is rare, and is considered vulgar behaviour in Japanese.

The current Emperor is scheduled to abdicate on 30 April 2019, necessating a change in nengō. It is believed that the new name will be made public in advance.

Periods without era names[]

The era name system that was introduced by Emperor Kōtoku was abandoned after his death; no era names were designated between 654 and 686. The system was briefly reinstated by Emperor Tenmu in 686, but was again abandoned upon his death about two months later. In 701, Emperor Monmu once again reinstated the era name system, and it has continued uninterrupted through today.



Unofficial era name system[]

In addition to the official era name system, in which the era names are selected by the imperial court, one also observes—primarily in the ancient documents and epigraphs of shrines and temples—unofficial era names called shinengō (私年号), also known as ginengō (偽年号) or inengō (異年号). Currently, there are over 40 confirmed shinengō, most of them dating from the middle ages. Shinengō used prior to the reestablishment of the era name system in 701 are usually called itsunengō (逸年号). A list of shinengō and more information can be seen in the Japanese language entry on 私年号.

Because official records of shinengō are lacking, the range of dates to which they apply is often unclear. For example, the well-known itsunengō Hakuhō (白鳳) is normally said to refer to 650–654 CE; a poetic synonym for the Hakuchi era. However, alternate interpretations exist. For example, in the Nichūreki, Hakuhō refers to 661–683 CE, and in some medieval temple documents, Hakuhō refers to 672–685 CE. Thus, shinengō may be used as an alternative way of dating periods for which there is no official era name.

Other well-known itsunengō and shinengō include Hōkō (法興) (591–621+ CE), Suzaku (朱雀) (686), Fukutoku (福徳) (1489–1492), Miroku (弥勒) (1506–1507 or 1507–1509) and Meiroku (命禄) (1540–1543).

The most recent shinengō is Seiro (征露) (1904–1905), named for the Russo-Japanese War.

Kyūshū nengō[]

Edo period scholar Tsurumine Shikenobu proposed that Kyūshū nengō (九州年号), said to have been used in ancient Kumaso, should also be considered a form of shinengō. This claim is not generally recognized by the academic community. Lists of the proposed Kyūshū nengō can be seen in the Japanese language entries 鶴峯戊申 and 九州王朝説.

Software support[]

Since the release of Java 8, the Japanese calendar is supported in the new Date and time API for the year Meiji 6 (1873) onwards.[6]

With a new era anticipated to begin on 1 May, 2019, computers and software manufacturers will need to test their systems for the new era. Windows provides a test mechanism to simulate a new era ahead of time.[7]

Unicode code point U+32FF has been reserved for representing the new era name.[8][9][10][11][12][13]

See also[]


  3. ^ Murray, David. (1894). The Story of Japan, p. 402, p. 402, at Google Books, citing William Bramsen. (1880). Japanese Chronological Tables, pp. 54–55, p. 54, at Google Books
  5. ^ 年号一覧 Archived 19 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ "JapaneseDate (Java Platform SE 8 )". Archived from the original on 2015-05-15. 
  7. ^ "The Japanese Calendar's Y2K Moment". 
  8. ^ Request to reserve the code point for square Japanese new era name (PDF), 2017-12-19 
  9. ^ The Japan National Body (2018-05-23), Update on SC2 N4577 “Request to reserve the code point for square Japanese new era name” (PDF) 
  10. ^ "RESOLUTION M 23-10", Resolutions of the 23rd ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 Plenary Meeting, 2018-06-28 
  11. ^ Future Additions to ISO/IEC 10646 (January 2018) (PDF), 2018-01-25 
  12. ^ "Proposed New Characters: Pipeline Table". Unicode Consortium. 2018-06-30. 
  13. ^ Whistler, Ken (2018-07-16), Unicode 12.1 Planning Considerations 


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