Welcome the Lay-wa Era!

[Taro Toporific]

The Lay-wa Era / 令和

Lay-wa-Era.jpg

Reiwa: Japan reveals name of new era ahead of Emperor's abdication
japantimes.co.jp | 2019/04/01
In a much-awaited moment that heralded a new chapter in Japan’s history, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced Monday that the new Imperial era will be named Reiwa, taking one of the final steps toward initiating the nation’s first imperial succession in three decades.
Suga, who displayed a placard showing off the kanji characters for the new era, said the name was formulated based on a poem from “Manyoshu,” the oldest existing compilation of Japanese poetry.
{令和} The first character represents “good fortune,” while the second can be translated as “peace” or “harmony.”
This was the first time that the characters chosen were taken from Japanese classical literature. Prior era names had used kanji from Chinese literature.
More...

[Grumpy Gramps]

When I first heard the name (the audio of it), I thought it meant "zero", and was positively surprised about their insight, but alas "peace and harmony" in a time when they're building aircraft carriers, sounds more like a bit of an euphemism as usual.

[Mike Oxlong]

Passing "good fortune" gas?

[Taro Toporific]

When I first heard the name (the audio of it), I thought it meant "zero", and was positively surprised about their insight...

It's the Strong ZERO Era®/零和年号!

Strong-Zero-Era.jpg

Official video: youtu.be/Mt40RYc7znc?t=1707

Wait, wait, it gets better...It's the Manko Era!

manko-Era.jpg

[Mike Oxlong]

When I first heard the name (the audio of it), I thought it meant "zero", and was positively surprised about their insight...

It's the Strong ZERO Era®/零和年号!

Strong-Zero-Era.jpg

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm34890891

[Mike Oxlong]

[BigInJapan]

According to the Japanese government, the official translation of 令和 (reiwa) is "beautiful harmony."

Article on Japan Today (also a few folks getting worked up in the comments...).

Gov't says official translation for next era name Reiwa is 'beautiful harmony'

By Mari Yamaguchi

TOKYO - The Japanese government said Tuesday that the official translation of the era name for the new emperor will be "Beautiful Harmony," setting off confusion while offices rush to make changes before Crown Prince Naruhito takes the throne.

The era of Reiwa begins May 1, a day after 85-year-old Emperor Akihito abdicates and hands over the chrysanthemum throne to his elder son.

The cultural importance of the imperial family and the secretive naming process created a frenzy of attention for the announcement of the era name on Monday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the name, composed of two Chinese characters, was taken for the first time from an ancient Japanese book instead of from Chinese classics. He said it comes from a section about plum blossoms in Manyoshu, a poetry anthology from the 7th-8th centuries, and suggests that "culture is born and nurtured as the people's hearts are beautifully drawn together."

Abe did not say which of a range of meanings for each of the two Chinese characters applied to the era name.

Experts and media had a variety of interpretations of the meaning, and initial reports generally settled on "pursuing harmony." The first character can also mean order, rule, good or auspicious. The second can mean peace, reconciliation or soft.

A Foreign Ministry official gave the official translation Tuesday.

"Reiwa is best interpreted as 'beautiful harmony,'" said Masaru Sato, the deputy consul-general and director of the Japan Information Center in New York. "Reiwa refers to the beauty of plum blossoms after a tough winter, and is taken to mean the beauty of people when they bring their hearts together to cultivate a culture."

However, some experts said the first Chinese character, "Rei," today is most widely thought to mean "order," ''command" and "dictate," with an authoritarian tone.

Historians and experts on the monarchy noted that an 1864 era name proposal of "Reitoku" using the same first character was rejected by the Tokugawa Shogunate, which said it sounded like the emperor was commanding Tokugawa.

"The name sounds as if we are ordered to achieve peace, rather than doing so proactively," Kazuto Hongo, a University of Tokyo historian, said on TV Asahi.

Yoshinori Kobayashi, a conservative cartoonist who has written books on Japanese emperors, said the character "Rei" portrays "the people kneeling down under the crown. It's meaning, after all, is a command of a monarch or a ruler. ... It is inevitable that Reiwa gives a somewhat cold impression."

[Grumpy Gramps]

How Japan’s new imperial era broke the internet in a very tiny way

[...]

Crown Prince Naruhito, and as part of the transition comes a new gengo, or era name: “Reiwa.” It’s loaded with meaning and subtext, but because of the way text is sent and displayed over the internet, the name can’t actually be displayed in a certain official way. Unicode has issued an update making it possible, but for now there’s just no character for Reiwa.

[...]

Now, to be clear, you can definitely type out the kanji for it, 令和, and that’s totally fine (though there are some technical hiccups there too). But gengo get combined single characters for certain situations and contexts. For comparison, the current (soon to be former) era, Heisei, can be written 平成 but has a combined-character name as well: ㍻. Sure, it’s just the two pieces squished together, but they’re squished together in an important, official way.

[...]

I guess, I'll keep writing "2019" instead

[Russell]

How Japan’s new imperial era broke the internet in a very tiny way

[...]

Crown Prince Naruhito, and as part of the transition comes a new gengo, or era name: “Reiwa.” It’s loaded with meaning and subtext, but because of the way text is sent and displayed over the internet, the name can’t actually be displayed in a certain official way. Unicode has issued an update making it possible, but for now there’s just no character for Reiwa.

[...]

Now, to be clear, you can definitely type out the kanji for it, 令和, and that’s totally fine (though there are some technical hiccups there too). But gengo get combined single characters for certain situations and contexts. For comparison, the current (soon to be former) era, Heisei, can be written 平成 but has a combined-character name as well: ㍻. Sure, it’s just the two pieces squished together, but they’re squished together in an important, official way.

[...]

I guess, I'll keep writing "2019" instead

So, the only way to get rid of the Gengo system is if they run out of Unicode characters...

[matsuki]

How Japan’s new imperial era broke the internet in a very tiny way

[...]

Crown Prince Naruhito, and as part of the transition comes a new gengo, or era name: “Reiwa.” It’s loaded with meaning and subtext, but because of the way text is sent and displayed over the internet, the name can’t actually be displayed in a certain official way. Unicode has issued an update making it possible, but for now there’s just no character for Reiwa.

[...]

Now, to be clear, you can definitely type out the kanji for it, 令和, and that’s totally fine (though there are some technical hiccups there too). But gengo get combined single characters for certain situations and contexts. For comparison, the current (soon to be former) era, Heisei, can be written 平成 but has a combined-character name as well: ㍻. Sure, it’s just the two pieces squished together, but they’re squished together in an important, official way.

[...]

I guess, I'll keep writing "2019" instead

I intentionally write 2019 where I can get away with it. If I'm not minzoku, he's not my emperor!

[Russell]

How Japan’s new imperial era broke the internet in a very tiny way

[...]

Crown Prince Naruhito, and as part of the transition comes a new gengo, or era name: “Reiwa.” It’s loaded with meaning and subtext, but because of the way text is sent and displayed over the internet, the name can’t actually be displayed in a certain official way. Unicode has issued an update making it possible, but for now there’s just no character for Reiwa.

[...]

Now, to be clear, you can definitely type out the kanji for it, 令和, and that’s totally fine (though there are some technical hiccups there too). But gengo get combined single characters for certain situations and contexts. For comparison, the current (soon to be former) era, Heisei, can be written 平成 but has a combined-character name as well: ㍻. Sure, it’s just the two pieces squished together, but they’re squished together in an important, official way.

[...]

I guess, I'll keep writing "2019" instead

I intentionally write 2019 where I can get away with it. If I'm not minzoku, he's not my emperor!

I certainly do so for my date of birth.

[matsuki]

I certainly do so for my date of birth.

Do you go Korean style and tell people you're 1 or are you counting the months?

[Mike Oxlong]

via @Mulboyne

[Mike Oxlong]

Benjie Fulord goes full Benjamin. Normally I'd look at the date and assume a prank, but...

Japanese generals ready to act against Zionist stooges as “Reiwa era” begins
https://anon.to/nCNoAT

[Thanatos' embalmed botfly]

Japan's New Emperor Enshrined.

--Japan Today--

Japan's new emperor Hisahito was today enshrined in a 10-minute ceremony.

He was presented with 3 national treasures.


From left to right;

- a sumptuous bento lunchbox containing the purest of ancient traditional Japanese cuisine; whale groin doused in dolphin placenta, porpoise phlegm soup and octopus snot gratin.

- the last remaining VHS copy of the 1989 video classic "Upskirt Bukkake Grannies on The Bus." Long considered to be a classic of the genre as well as Japan's leading contribution to the art world for the entire 30-year Heisei era.

- finally, a coupla fucken golf clubs for the Empo to potter about with in the back yard, practicing the ol' golf swing while nutjob wife Masako's inside having a massive fucken cry about next to fucken nothing.

[TennoChinko]

Ostukaresama ....

Male corpse found at tomb of Emperor Showa; suicide suspected | TokyoReporter
BY TOKYO REPORTER STAFF ON MAY 1, 2019



https://www.tokyoreporter.com/japan/mal ... suspected/

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police are investigating what is believed to have been a suicide after the discovery of a male corpse at the tomb of Emperor Showa in the Musashi Imperial Graveyard in Hachioji City on Wednesday, reports the Asahi Shimbun (May 1).

...source

[wangta]

Wait - the reports said he'd been shot with a crossbow. Funny kind of suicide, that.

As for all the doubletalk and pig dung about 'Beautiful harmony in a culture' etc, it's just code for the same ol ultra right revisionist excrement. Just like the message sent by the kanji when you first look at it - rei - obey, bow, command. The more things change, the more they stay the same. When the ageing Emperor who abdicated recently is less conservative than the government, that says it all really.

What we're seeing is the beginning of the end - Japan's demographics are horrible and the importation of developing country guest workers who will be mostly uneducated people due to be kicked out in 5 yrs time, won't do anything for it apart from keeping the ugly shit, fake wood and toxic material uchi and apato being built while the population drops and there are plenty of akebaya. They'll also keep the scam of 'farming' going on just as everyone's taxes will keep being appropriated for these uneconomical, over-subsidized agricultural 'enterprises' and so on.

Meanwhile senile old bastards will continue to run people over, other ones who don't drive will continue to be a miserable old shite burden and reject carers who don't resemble their ugly old faces and the Japanese govt will probably consider dumping their old people in Asia as they once had as a policy, and Japanese working mothers will continue to send their kids to what is laughably called day care in Tokyo and other big cities.

Last time I looked - last week - daycare in the relatively affluent area where I work, not live, consists of babies screaming continuously and just about choking on their screams while being pushed in carts around narrow streets that are death traps and have no footpaths along with the older screaming or tantrum throwing children being walked down them. They go to the shotengai and scream again when they are told they can't have anything on display.

Rinse and repeat all over Tokyo. I have never seen anything resembling day care in Oz that takes babies and children onto roads even the wide ones with footpaths, and then into the local shopping area - again with vast space by contrast to here. And the Japanese actually pay for this. What a fucked up country and society this is, no fucking future for you as Johnny Rotten snarled elsewhere years ago.