The government asked the literary scholar who proposed "Reiwa" as the current era name to come up with a candidate from the "Manyoshu," Japan's oldest known poetry anthology, just nine days before the name was to be announced, according to sources.

The sources also said it was Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who insisted that the new era name come from Japanese literature and from the "Manyoshu" in particular.

The expert, Susumu Nakanishi, a former president and professor of Japanese classics at Osaka Women's University, came up with Reiwa two days after receiving the government's request, the sources said Saturday.