Many Japanese recall their family history on historic change to new Imperial era

April 30, 2019

Many Japanese recall their family history on historic change to new Imperial era

Japanese people have come to see a long-awaited historic moment--the change from the expiring Imperial era name to an incoming new one following a living Emperor's abdication. (See the January 2019 spot on this blog site.)
The new Imperial era name, Reiwa, was declared at the beginning of the first day of May. (The Japanese time is nine hours ahead of the global standard time.) The new era name, announced by the government April 1, means "beautiful peace," as officially announced by the Foreign Ministry.
The incident came to the Japanese people, as Emperor Akihito abdicated the chrysanthemum throne at the end of April 30, the first Japanese Emperor for about 200 years to do so while being alive. This opened the way for his eldest son, Naruhito, 59, to start his era as a new Emperor amid fresh expectations from various walks of life.
The retired Emperor's era continued for 30 years and four months from Jan. 7, 1989, when he succeeded Emperor Hirohito on his death. The length of his era, called Heisei, proved to be less than half of the 64 years of the Showa era under his father's reign.  But, because the length almost matches the family's generation cycle, many Japanese tend to liken their family history to the incidents and occurrences during the outgoing era.
The tendency also reflects the fact that Emperor Ahikito has lived a turbulent life from the prewar years, exactly just as his father did, and after the start of his own era, he and his wife, Empress Michiko, saw Japanese people suffer from a series of natural disasters.
The author of this blog series started the Heisei era with his wife and two daughters, then 4 years old and one year old, and bought a new house in the first year of Heisei. Four years later, the family had a third child, the first boy.
The father climbed his career ladder as an English news writer, becoming the boss of a team of 20 or so news writers and reporters. Toward the end of the Heisei era, his elder daughter got married to a Japanese man living in the United States, and one year later, the new couple had a boy baby, making him a grandfather. As a result, the family's generation gear moved forward by another notch.
The change of the Imperial era name usually comes all of a sudden, following the reigning Emperor's death, but this time, the shift to the new Imperial era was planned well before, allowing Japanese to recall the memorable incidents that occurred around them in the outgoing Imperial era.
One young man, seen interviewed by a TV crew on the street, commented the shift to the new Imperial ere name "reminds me I'm a Japanese, and that this is a special feeling, you know." 
The man's comment can be an indication that the Imperial incident has been received generally in a favorable manner among the people, giving them time to think about their life and history once again.