During the three decades of Heisei, which began in 1989 and ends Tuesday, the environment surrounding Japan radically changed. We need to grasp the lessons learned during Heisei and use them to meet the challenges of the new Reiwa Era.
The introduction of a name for the new era is a significant event in Japanese society and it resets the sentiments of many people. Japan is the sole country in the world that officially maintains an Imperial era name system, which in the past was employed by members of the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Korea and Vietnam.
Japan has been using the system since 645, when the era of Taika started. After World War II, the system lost its legitimacy under the law and continued to be used merely in practice. But the fact that it continued also indicated that the system was well-established in people's lives even without a legal foundation. A law enacted in 1979 laid the legal foundation for formally reinstating the Imperial era name system.