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Inside Out & Outside In
OpinionComment
David Dodwell
David Dodwell

Outside In | Does Japan’s Reiwa era promise a new economic dawn even as China rises?

  • The Heisei era under Emperor Akihito was blighted by decades of economic stagnation. As the country enters the Reiwa era under Naruhito, there are encouraging signs that Japan has found a new regional role

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Women show smartphone screens with the name of Japan’s new era, “Reiwa”, in Osaka on April 1, following its announcement by the government earlier in the day. Photo: Kyodo
David Dodwell
On May 1, Japan will restart its clock, drawing the curtain on the Heisei era of Emperor Akihito and waking to a new – and hopefully brighter – Reiwa era of 59-year-old Emperor Naruhito. 
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For many Japanese, this is perhaps not a moment too soon. For a couple of years, Japan’s economists have been talking up the “true dawn” unfolding in the country, as they try to put behind them the disaster, drift and global decline of three decades of Heisei.
Most of their tentative optimism has arisen from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his “Abenomics”, as later this year he is expected to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. But on May 1, there will be many drawing new hope from Reiwa, as Naruhito ascends to become Japan’s 126th emperor in what is the world’s longest-serving monarchy – Britain’s Windsors have a few centuries to go yet.

It all starts with the meticulous choice of the name, Reiwa, generally translated as “beautiful or auspicious harmony”. Behind the blandness of a phrase, there are radical hints. There have been 247 era names since the practice originated in 645AD, and this is the very first time “rei” has been used. For the conservative Japanese, this is a big deal.

An even bigger deal, and undoubtedly a source of huge patriotic pride, is the fact that Reiwa is the first era name not to be drawn from Chinese literature, but instead from Japanese literature – from the Manyoshu collection of poems written more than 13 centuries ago.

Shinzo Abe, a fierce patriot, called Reiwa “a truly refreshing name that opens the door to a bright era”. But this is perhaps where the radical connotations end, because the careful selection of the new era name reminds everyone of the proud conservatism of Japan, at once one of its greatest strengths and also harbouring the potential to be a deep weakness.

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