Heisei era

Heisei (平成, Heisei ^?) is the name of the Japanese era that began on January 8, 1989, one day after Emperor Hirohito's death, when his son, Akihito, ascended the throne as the 125th Emperor. In accordance with Japanese customs, Hirohito was posthumously renamed "Showa Emperor" on January 31, 1989.

Thus, 1989 corresponds to Era Shōwa 64 until January 7, and to Era Heisei 1 (平成元年Heisei gannan, gannen means first year) from 8 from January. Heisei ended on April 30, 2019 (Heisei 31), the date on which Emperor Akihito abdicated the Chrysanthemum Throne. It was succeeded by the Reiwa era as of May 1, 2019.

History

On January 7, 1989 at 7:55 AM JST, Japan Imperial Household Agency Grand Quartermaster Shōichi Fujimori announced the death of Emperor Hirohito at 6:33 AM JST, revealing details of her cancer for the first time. Shortly after the Emperor's death, Keizō Obuchi, Chief Cabinet Secretary and later Prime Minister of Japan, proclaimed the end of the Shōwa era, announcing the era's new name “Heisei” for the new Emperor, and explaining his meaning.

According to Obuchi, the name “Heisei” was taken from two books on Chinese history and philosophy called Historical Memoirs (史記 Shǐjì) and the History Classic (書経 Shūjīng). In the Shǐjì, the phrase "内平外成" (nèi píng wài chéng; Kanbun: 内平かに外成る Uchi tairaka ni soto naru) appears in a section extolling the wise rule of the legendary Chinese Emperor Emperor Shun. In Shūjīng, the phrase "地平天成" (dì píng tiān chéng; Kanbun: 地平かに天成る Chi tairaka ni ten naru, "peace in heaven and on earth") appears. Combining the two meanings, Heisei is intended to mean "everywhere peace." The Heisei era began immediately the day after Emperor Akihito's succession to the throne on January 7, 1989.

In August 2016, Emperor Akihito gave a televised address to the entire nation, expressing concern that his age will one day prevent him from carrying out his official duties. This was a consequence of his desire to withdraw from it. Japan's Diet passed a law in June 2017 allowing the throne to pass to Akihito's son, Naruhito. After meeting with members of the Imperial Household Council, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced that April 30, 2019 would be the date of Akihito's abdication. Naruhito's reign began on May 1, 2019, ushering in the Reiwa Era.

Events

1989 marked the culmination of one of the fastest economic growth in Japanese history. With a yen strengthening after the Plaza Accord, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates low, sparking an investment boom that sent property values up as much as 60 percent that year. Shortly before New Year's Day, the Nikkei 225 reached its all-time high of 39,000. By 1992, it fell to 15,000, which meant the end of the famous Japanese bubble economy. The moment the speculative bubble burst is known as the “Collapse of the bubble” (崩壊 hōkai). Later, Japan experienced the "decade of losses," which consisted of more than ten years of price deflation and largely stagnant GDP, with Japanese banks struggling to resolve their bad debts and companies in other industries trying to restructure.

The financial scandal of 1988 had already eroded public confidence in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had controlled the Japanese government for 38 years. In 1993, the LDP was overthrown by a coalition led by Morihiro Hosokawa. However, the coalition collapsed as the parties had simply come together to overthrow the LDP, and it lacked a unified position on almost all social issues. The LDP returned to government in 1994, when it helped elect Japanese Socialist (later Social Democrat) Tomiichi Murayama as Prime Minister.

Tarō Asō

In 1995 there was a huge earthquake that reached a magnitude of 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale in Kobe, Hyōgo and the sarin gas terrorist attack that occurred on the Tokyo Subway by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group on Monday March 20 of that same year. The Japanese government's failure to react to these events immediately led to the formation of non-governmental organizations that have played an increasingly important role in Japanese politics ever since.

During this period, Japan re-emerged as a military power. In 1991, Japan promised billions of US dollars for the Gulf War, but Japan's constitutional arguments prevented involvement in the actual war, leading to Iran criticizing Japan for only pledging money, but not appreciating the way that Japan cooperated in that war.

After the war, however, Japanese minesweepers were sent in as part of the reconstruction effort. Following the Iraq War, in 2003, Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi's cabinet approved a plan to send around 1,000 Japanese self-defense forces soldiers to help rebuild Iraq, the largest overseas troop deployment ever. since World War II without the consent of the UN.

On October 23, 2004, the Niigata Prefectural earthquakes struck the Hokuriku region, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds (see 2004 Chuetsu earthquake)

After an election defeat, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe immediately resigned, and in the fall of 2007 Yasuo Fukuda became Prime Minister. Fukuda, in turn, resigned in September 2008 over a failed policy and Tarō Asō was elected by his own party.

In August 2009, for the first time, Japan's Democratic Party won 308 seats in lower house elections, ending 50 years of LDP-dominated politics. As a result of the elections, Tarō Asō resigned as LDP leader, and Yukio Hatoyama, DPJ Chairman, became Prime Minister on September 16, 2009. However, the DPJ soon became embroiled in party funding scandals., particularly with close aides to Ichirō Ozawa. Naoto Kan was chosen by the DPJ as the next prime minister, but he soon lost a large majority of workers in the House of Councilors election and in the 2010 incident of a clash between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japanese patrol boats in the Senkaku Islands caused an increase in tensions between Japan and China. Toyota's vehicle overhaul between 2009 and 2010 also took place during this time.

Shinzō Abe

In 2011, a sumo competition was canceled for the first time in 65 years over a scandal over a rigging of the results.

On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 p.m. m., Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes recorded in the country's history, which affected parts of the three regions of Tohoku, Chubu and Kanto in northeast Honshu including the Tokyo area. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0, similar to the one that occurred, along with a tsunami, on December 26, 2004 in South and Southeast Asia, and the devastating earthquake that struck Christchurch, the largest city in New Zealand., in February 2011. A tsunami with waves of more than 10 meters (32.5 feet) inundated areas of several kilometers of coastal zone, causing a considerable number of fires. The quake's epicenter was so close to coastal towns and cities that thousands of people were unable to flee in time, despite having a tsunami warning system. Serious problems with the cooling system occurred at the Fukushima Daichi or Fukushima I nuclear power plant and at three other nuclear power plants, ultimately resulting in the most serious case of radioactive contamination since the Chernobyl disaster. (See Fukushima I Nuclear Accident) At the same time and for this reason, there was also a shortage of electrical power. After the earthquake, for the first time the Emperor addressed the entire nation through a recorded television broadcast.

In August 2011, Kan resigned and Yoshihiko Noda became prime minister. Later that same year, the Olympus company admitted to significant accounting irregularities. Noda lobbied for Japan to consider joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement but was defeated in the 2012 election, replaced by Shinzō Abe.

Abe tried to end deflation, but Japan slipped back into recession in 2014, largely due to an increase in sales tax to 8%. Abe called an election in December and vowed to delay further sales tax hikes until 2018. Abe won the election.

In September 2015, after much controversy and debate, the National Diet gave final approval to legislation expanding the role of the Japanese military abroad.

In 2018, severe heavy rains in western Japan caused many deaths in Hiroshima and Okayama. In addition, an earthquake struck Hokkaido, killing 41 people and causing a blackout across the region. (See Hokkaido earthquake)

Conversion table

To convert any Gregorian calendar year between 1989 and 2019 to the Heisei Era, subtract 1989 from the year in question and then add 1.

The Year 2019 until April 30 of said year, when he abdicated the throne