Open discussions necessary for new era name in Japan

April 1, 2018

Tokyo- Nobuo Ishihara, who served as deputy chief cabinet secretary when the Japanese era name was changed from Showa to Heisei in 1989, has called for open discussions on the name of a new era that will succeed the current one in line with Emperor Akihito's abdication and Crown Prince Naruhito's ascent to the throne in 2019.

"This time, the Imperial succession is set to take place while the Emperor is alive, so we can hold discussions in a very open manner," Ishihara, 91, now head of the Research Institute for Local Government, said in an interview with Jiji Press, stressing the need to ensure transparency in the debates on the new era name, and ceremonies and other events related to the handover of the throne.

Crown Prince Naruhito is scheduled to rise to the throne on May 1 next year following Emperor Akihito's abdication on April 30 the same year, in the first succession from a living Emperor in about 200 years in Japan.

After Emperor Hirohito, the father of Emperor Akihito and posthumously called Emperor Showa, was diagnosed as cancer, the Japanese government secretly started, about a year before the demise of Emperor Hirohito, preparations for his funeral and enthronement ceremonies for the current Emperor, as well as work to select members of a panel of experts for deciding an era name, Ishihara said.

"We were unable to say (openly) that 'we are making preparations for Emperor Hirohito's funeral' while he was fighting his disease," Ishihara recalled. "Such consideration is unnecessary this time," he said.

Emperor Hirohito died on Jan. 7, 1989, and Emperor Akihito assumed the throne within the day. The Showa era ended the same day, and the Heisei era began the following day.

At the time, the government sought new era name candidates from classics scholars on condition that the new era name is made up of two kanji characters that are easy to write and means "a peaceful time."

After consultations with then Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and then Chief Cabinet Secretary Keizo Obuchi, the candidate were narrowed down to three--Heisei, Shubun and Seika.

At a meeting of the era name panel held on the day when Emperor Hirohito passed away, six of its eight members favored Heisei, according to Ishihara. The other two agreed to support it in the course of discussions, he said.

The biggest problem in ceremonies related to Emperor Akihito's enthronement was how to make "Daijosai," a very religious event related to Shinto in which the Emperor prays for the well-being of the people and good harvests, consistent with the constitutional principle of the separation of politics and religion, Ishihara said.

Past examples could not be followed, because this was the first Imperial succession after the end of World War II. Eventually, the government decided to hold the ceremony as an Imperial Family event, based on opinions from experts, according to Ishihara.

A Shinto style should never be adopted for a government-sponsored event, Ishihara said.

Pre-war Imperial Family rituals were deeply based on Shinto, so sorting them out was a very important task, Ishihara recalled. Jiji Press