Reiwa period

The name Reiwa was announced on 1 April 2019 by the chief cabinet secretary, Suga Yoshihide, a month before the succession. It was selected by the cabinet from several candidates proposed by scholars. Its two characters come from the preface to a sequence of thirty-two poems on plum blossoms in book five of the Man'yōshū, composed at a banquet held in 730 at the residence of the poet Ōtomo no Tabito, governor of Dazaifu in Kyushu: 'in this auspicious (rei) month of early spring, the air is clear and the wind gentle (wa)'.

All earlier era names that can be traced were taken from Chinese classics; Reiwa is the first known to derive from a Japanese text. The character rei is often read as 'command' in modern Japanese, so the government explained the intended meaning abroad as 'beautiful harmony'. Sakamoto Hachimangū in Dazaifu, near the presumed site of Tabito's residence, became a place of pilgrimage for visitors interested in the name.

Emperor Naruhito, born in 1960, studied history at Gakushūin University and at Merton College, Oxford, where he researched transport on the River Thames in the eighteenth century; he is known for his work on water issues. In 1993 he married Owada Masako, a former diplomat educated at Harvard and Oxford. Their daughter, Princess Aiko, was born in 2001.

The accession ceremonies followed tradition within the framework of the postwar constitution: the emperor received the regalia on 1 May 2019, proclaimed his enthronement before domestic and foreign guests on 22 October 2019 (Sokui no rei), and performed the Daijōsai harvest rite in November 2019. The Imperial House Law limits succession to men in the male line, and the small number of eligible heirs has kept the question of future succession under discussion.

The COVID-19 pandemic reached Japan in early 2020. The government declared states of emergency from April 2020 that relied on requests rather than legal lockdowns, closed the borders to most foreign visitors for long periods and lifted most restrictions by 2023. On 8 July 2022 former prime minister Abe Shinzō, Japan's longest-serving head of government, was shot and killed while campaigning in Nara; the attacker's grievance against the Unification Church led to investigations of the group's ties to politicians and its fundraising practices. In October 2025 Takaichi Sanae became Japan's first female prime minister.

Long-term trends continued: births fell to record lows, the population declined, and the number of foreign residents and workers rose. International visitor numbers recovered strongly after the pandemic, making tourism a major industry and raising debates about overcrowding at popular sites.

The pandemic caused a sharp contraction in 2020. From 2022, global energy and food prices and a weak yen brought inflation to Japan after decades of near-zero price growth, and wage negotiations produced the largest pay rises in three decades. In March 2024 the Bank of Japan ended the negative interest-rate policy it had pursued since 2016. In July 2024 redesigned banknotes entered circulation, featuring the industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi, the educator Tsuda Umeko and the bacteriologist Kitasato Shibasaburō.

Natural hazards remained a constant of national life. Typhoon Hagibis caused widespread flooding in eastern Japan in October 2019, and heavy rains in Kyushu in July 2020 claimed many lives. On 1 January 2024 an earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, destroying much of Wajima and other towns, where fire and later floods compounded the damage and recovery proved slow in the ageing, remote communities.

After Abe's assassination, public scrutiny of the Unification Church (officially the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) led the government to seek a court order to dissolve its religious corporation. The Tokyo District Court issued the order in March 2025, and the Tokyo High Court upheld it in March 2026 – the first dissolution based on civil wrongdoing rather than criminal acts. The pandemic temporarily transformed religious life, with festivals cancelled or scaled down and online prayers and amulet sales offered by some shrines and temples.

Japan hosted the Rugby World Cup in autumn 2019, the first in Asia, where the national team reached the quarter-finals for the first time. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, postponed because of the pandemic, were held from 23 July to 8 August 2021, largely without spectators, followed by the Paralympics; they kept the name Tokyo 2020. Osaka hosted the World Expo from 13 April to 13 October 2025 on the artificial island of Yumeshima.

Japanese popular culture continued to expand globally through streaming, with anime series and films reaching record international audiences, and Japanese athletes such as the baseball player Ōtani Shōhei gained worldwide fame.

Official Japanese documents, forms and many receipts give the year in the era system, for example Reiwa 7 for 2025. To convert, add 2018 to the Reiwa year. The first year of an era is often written gannen (first year) rather than 1, so 2019 appears as both Heisei 31 (until 30 April) and Reiwa gannen (from 1 May). Abbreviations such as R7 are common on forms.