Heisei period

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Heisei (平成^?) is the current era name in Japan. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the first day after the death of the reigning Emperor, Hirohito. His son, Akihito, succeeded to the throne. In accordance with Japanese customs, Hirohito was posthumously renamed, to "Emperor Shōwa" on 31 January.

Thus 1989 corresponds to Shōwa 64 up to the 7th day of the first month (7 January) and to Heisei 1 (平成元年, Heisei gannen^?, gannen means "first year") since the 8th day of the first month (8 January). To convert a Common Era year after 2000 to Heisei, take the last two digits and add 12. Example for 2011: 11+12 = Heisei 23.

History and meaning

On 7 January 1989, at 7:55 AM, the grand steward of Japan's Imperial Household Agency, Shōichi Fujimori, officially announced Emperor Shōwa's death, and revealed details about his cancer for the first time. Shortly after the death of the Emperor, Keizō Obuchi, then Chief Cabinet Secretary and later Prime Minister of Japan, publicly announced the end of the Shōwa era, and heralded the new era name "Heisei" for the new incoming Emperor, and explained the meaning of the name.

According to Obuchi, the name "Heisei" was taken from two Chinese history and philosophy books, namely Records of the Grand Historian (史記 Shiji) and the Classic of History (書経 Shujing). In the Shiji, the sentence "内平外成" (Kanbun: 内平かに外成る Uchi tairaka ni soto naru, peace inside and prosperity outward) appears in a section honoring the wise rule of the legendary Chinese Emperor Shun. In the Shujing, the sentence "地平天成" (Kanbun: 地平かに天成る Chi tairaka ni ten naru, the land is peaceful and the sky is clear) appears. By combining both meanings, Heisei is intended to mean "peace everywhere". The Heisei era went into effect immediately after the announcement of the new emperor on 8 January 1989.

Events

1989 marked the culmination of one of the most rapid economic growth spurts in Japanese history. With a strong yen and a favorable exchange rate with the US$, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates low, sparking an investment boom that drove Tokyo property values up sixty percent within the year. Shortly before New Year's Day, the Nikkei 225 reached its record high of 39,000. By 1991, it had fallen to 15,000, signifying the end of Japan's famed "bubble economy". Subsequently, Japan experienced the "Lost Decade", which actually consisted of more than ten years of price deflation and largely stagnant GDP as Japan's banks struggled to resolve their bad debts and companies in other sectors struggled to restructure.

The Recruit scandal of 1988 had already eroded public confidence in the Liberal Democratic Party, which had controlled the Japanese government for 38 years. In 1993, the LDP was ousted by a coalition led by Morihiro Hosokawa. However, the coalition collapsed as parties had gathered to simply overthrow LDP and lacked a unified position on almost every social issue. The LDP returned to the government in 1994, when it helped to elect Japan Socialist (later Social Democrat) Tomiichi Murayama as prime minister.

In 1995, there was a large earthquake in Kobe. The same year, there was a sarin gas terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system by the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo. Failure of the Japanese government to react to these events promptly led to the formation of NGOs which have been playing an increasingly important role in Japanese politics since.

The Heisei period also marked Japan's cautious reemergence on the world stage as a world military power. In 1991, Japan pledged billions of dollars to support the Gulf War but constitutional arguments prevented a participation in or support of actual war. Iran criticised Japan for just pledging money and didn't appreciate the way Japan co-operated in the Gulf War. Minesweepers were sent after the war as a part of the reconstruction effort. Following the Iraq War, in 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet approved a plan to send a total of about 1,000 soldiers of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to help in Iraq's reconstruction, the biggest overseas troop deployment since World War II without the sanction of the United Nations. These troops were deployed in 2004.

On 23 October 2004, the Heisei 16 Niigata Prefecture Earthquakes rocked the Hokuriku region, killing 52 and injuring hundreds (see 2004 Chūetsu earthquake).

In Autumn 2007 Yasuo Fukuda became Prime Minister after the sudden resignation of Shinzō Abe, following his election defeat earlier in the year. Fukuda in turn resigned on September the following year citing political failings, and Taro Aso was selected by his party to take his place.

In August 2009, for the first time, the Democratic Party of Japan won 308 seats in the lower house election, which ended fifty years of political domination by the Liberal Democratic Party. As a result of the election, Taro Aso resigned as leader of the LDP, and Yukio Hatoyama, president of DPJ became Prime Minister on 16 September 2009. However, DPJ soon became mired in party financing scandals, particularly involving aides close to Ichirō Ozawa. Naoto Kan was chosen by the DPJ as the next Prime Minister, but he soon lost a working majority in the House of Councillors election, and the 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident caused increased tension between Japan and China. The 2009–2010 Toyota vehicle recalls also took place during this time.

2011 saw a Sumo tourney cancelled for the first time in 65 years over a match fixing scandal, while the Kuril Islands dispute remained unresolved.^[1]

On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered the strongest recorded earthquake in its history, affecting places in the northeast of Honshū, including the Tokyo area.^[2] The quake′s magnitude of 8.9 (a few days later it was re-evaluated, bringing it up to 9.0)^[3] surpassed that of the severe 2004 megathrust earthquake west of Sumatra. A tsunami with waves of up to 10 meters (32.5 feet) flooded inland areas several kilometers from shore,^[4] causing a large number of considerable fires. The epicenter of the quake lay so close to coastal villages and towns that thousands could not flee in time, despite a tsunami warning system.^[5] At the Fukushima Daiichi (Fukushima I) and three other nuclear power plants, there occurred serious problems with the cooling systems,^[6] ultimately leading to the most serious case of radioactive contamination since the Chernobyl disaster (see 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima I nuclear accidents), as well as ongoing electric power shortages.

In August 2011, Kan resigned, and Yoshihiko Noda became Prime Minister. Later that year Olympus Corporation admitted accounting irregularities. (see Tobashi scheme)

Heisei	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Gregorian	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008

Heisei	21	22	23	24
Gregorian	2009	2010	2011	2012

Preceded by Shōwa	Era 8 January 1989–present	Most recent
Preceded by Post-Occupation Japan	Periods of Japanese history 8 January 1989–present	Most recent

See also

• 1990s in Japan
• 2000s in Japan
• 2011 in Japan

References

1. ^ Residents on disputed island increasingly shun Japan. JapanToday.com, retrieved March 11, 2011
2. ^ Martin Fackler, Kevin Drew: Devastation as Tsunami Crashes Into Japan. The New York Times, March 11, 2011
3. ^ USGS analysis as of 2011-03-12
4. ^ Massive tsunami caused by quake’s shallow focus. The Hamilton Spectator, March 12, 2011
5. ^ Japan's catastrophes—Nature strikes back—Can fragile Japan endure this hydra-headed disaster? The Economist, March 17, 2011
6. ^ K.N.C., H.T., A.N.: Containing the nuclear crisis