The new Japanese imperial era name has been announced by the prime minister’s office on April 1st.

=> Post about Japanese imperial eras

Reiwa 令和 れいわ

Reiwa 令和 れいわ

The new era, starting May 1st, will be called “Reiwa”, pronounced like Lay-Wah. The kanji representation is “令和”, “れいわ” in hiragana, and “レイワ” in katakana. So in new forms, if you see “令和” or “令” or “R” in the year section, that’s what it means.

The Chinese characters “令” means “Beautiful”, and “和” means “Harmony”. This comes from an olde Japanese script, called “Man-Yo-Shu (万葉集)”. It comes from the introduction to a series of 32 poems of plum flowers. Prime minister Abe has said that it is meant to pull together people’s beautiful souls, and to bring about and grow culture.