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| Japan reveals name of new imperial era will be 'Reiwa' | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Japan has announced that the name of its new imperial era, set to begin on 1 May, will be "Reiwa" - signifying order and harmony. | |
| The country's current era, Heisei, will end in a month with Emperor Akihito's historic abdication. | |
| Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced the highly-anticipated name by holding up a board with the characters handwritten on it. | |
| Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has addressed the nation to explain its meaning. | |
| The new name is made up of the two characters for "order" or "command", and "peace" or "harmony". | |
| Each Japanese emperor's reign, or "gengo", is given a name which is used alongside the Western calendar to mark time. | Each Japanese emperor's reign, or "gengo", is given a name which is used alongside the Western calendar to mark time. |
| The era's name aims to set the tone for the upcoming decades, and remains significant to most Japanese in their daily life. | The era's name aims to set the tone for the upcoming decades, and remains significant to most Japanese in their daily life. |
| It appears on coins, newspapers, driving licences and official paperwork. | It appears on coins, newspapers, driving licences and official paperwork. |
| Japan's government confirmed in December 2017 that the current emperor, 85-year old Akihito, would abdicate in April 2019 due to old age and hand the throne to his son, Crown Prince Naruhito. | |
| He will be the first Japanese emperor to do so in more than two centuries. | |
| The unveiling of the era name follows weeks of fevered speculation and top-secret cabinet discussions. | |
| Japan's cabinet chose the word from a selection drawn up by a panel of scholars and experts. | |
| "A short while ago, the government decided at a cabinet meeting on the new era name and how to pronounce it," Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference, holding up the new name painted in traditional calligraphy on white paper. | |
| Usually, a new era is revealed only when one emperor has died and his successor has taken the throne. Things are different this time round, however, due to the abdication. | |
| Emperor Akihito's three-decade reign is known as the Heisei era, which means "achieving peace" in Japanese. | |
| The era before that was called Showa, meaning ("enlightened harmony"). It was presided over by Japan's wartime emperor, Hirohito, and encompassed both World War Two and Japan's post-conflict boom. | |
| Although still widely used, the traditional gengo calendar is declining in popularity as Japan opens up to global influence. | |
| A recent survey in the Mainichi newspaper found that a third of people mostly used the gengo system, compared to 82% in 1975, while 25% preferred the Western Gregorian calendar. | |
| Since both calendars use Western months, many people simply use them alongside each other. |