Media hype over Reiwa, the newly announced name for the upcoming era, continued unabated Tuesday. At the same time, a majority of people appeared to happily welcome the name, which means "auspicious" (rei) and "peace" or "harmony" (wa).
However, the choice of the era name seems to reflect some important political considerations on the part of the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: For the first time, the two kanji chosen for the name were taken from Japanese classical literature, not Chinese.
A growing sense of rivalry with China has apparently prompted Abe and other key Cabinet members to distance themselves from Chinese literature, which has long been the traditional source when it comes to choosing a new era name. But ironically, the passage that inspired the new name was apparently influenced by a Chinese classical poem.