Japan: seize hope in a new imperial era

Japan has three New Year days this year. On January 1, the new year of the calendar was the obvious beginning, then April 1, the beginning of the fiscal year and university symbolized by the cherry blossoms of the season – and now May 1, a unique celebration of first day of this will be known as the Reiwa era of imperial rule.

The transition from the Heisei era to the next Reiwa era will take place when the reigning emperor has decided to relinquish his position to the Crown Prince, even if it was not constitutionally permissible. No emperor left his post in Japan in the last 200 years, but that was what he wanted because he had difficulty in baduming his responsibilities at his age. He is 85 years old.

Tuesday will be his last day as an emperor and, under the rule "a generation, a title," the era of Heisei will therefore end.

The current era of Heisei began on January 8, 1989, a day after the death of Emperor Showa. At the end of the dramatic period of Showa (1926-1989), a period during which Japan experienced wars, the Allied occupation and the swift recovery that ensued after the Second World War, the Japan decided to name Heisei, the period of imperial rule. The description of its complete logographic meaning requires a complete academic text from a linguist or translator, but in summary, it is generally interpreted to fall somewhere between "achieving calm" and "peace" all over".

This feeling made sense, Japan at that time no longer seeking anything too radical that could tire the country. After three decades of Heisei, Japan has certainly not experienced the violence brought on by military conflict. However, it is also known as "lost decades" of persistent economic uncertainty.

Japanese citizens have not experienced any improvement in their standard of living since the end of the badet price crisis in the early 1990s. The sentiments of today's Japanese are famously illustrated by Ryu Murakami's novel. Kibo no Kuni Exodus (Exodus, the nation of hope). At the height of this fictional story, a high school student makes a speech to the National Diet:

This country has everything … You can find what you want here. The only thing you can not find is hope.

Many readers have seen this as an accurate description of reality.

In practice, the new era of Reiwa should not lead Japan into a better future. Japan's economic mismanagement over the last few decades, coupled with the demographic decline due to the low birth rate and lack of official immigration policy, means that the country is likely to fall back economically during the new era. from Reiwa. Emerging countries go beyond Japan. China has already done so and India is coming closer. However, when the new era name was announced in early April, the Japanese were extremely positive as to what could follow.

According to the Japanese government, the new name Reiwa is derived from Manyoshu, the oldest collection of poems in Japan, which was published in the 8th century. Many Japanese are proud of it, as it was the first time that an imperial era was named in Japanese clbadical literature, instead of clbadical Chinese literature that was a source of influence of traditions and civilizations of East Asia. Reiwa was created from the following pbadage of Manyoshu.

It was spring again, in just one month ("rei"),
When the air was clear and the wind was blowing, a light breeze ("wa").
Plum blossoms have blossomed a charming white
And the scent of orchids was their sweet scent.

This gave the impression of a green light, allowing the Japanese to consider their future with a positive outlook. Maybe Japan can progress, hope being symbolized in the name of the new era. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 58 percent of the Japanese believe that Japan will be better off in the new era of Reiwa, while 17 percent are considering a negative future. If the government wants to please its citizens, this propaganda, whatever it is, has worked well.

Maybe I should be less cynical. If the Japanese are optimistic about their next era, they will certainly have hope, an absence that has been absent in recent decades. Of course, Japan's challenges will remain. However, it does not matter that it does not matter because Japan is already materially rich and, as the novelist Ryu Murakami has suggested, what is lacking, hope and happiness, could well be accomplished with the name of the new era.