What's a new imperial era, "Reiwa". Next to "Heisei".
Have you ever heard of Japanese era "Reiwa"? It is a unique calendar of Japan.
Reiwa is the Japanese era name generally knowing as Gengo, which refers to the term of each emperor in their place. Reiwa year starts from the 1st of May, 2019 when Naruhito ascended the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan, following the 31st year of Heisei. The word - Reiwa - is interpreted as beautiful harmony.
Japanese uses both the Western calendar and Reiwa nowaday. Even Japanese gets confused when we convert from the Japanese one to the Western calendar. For example, an expiration date of driver license is stated with Gengo. If I get confused with Gengo and lost tracking the expiration date, it will be in trouble, for sure. We have to check it carefully!
Japanese Calendar conversion
| Western Calendar Year | Reiwa Year |
| 2019 (from 1st of May) | 1 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2021 | 3 |
| 2022 | 4 |
| 2023 | 5 |
How to Calculate it using Magic Number, 18
"Reiwa Year" = "Western Calendar Year (Gregorian Calendar Year)" - "18" -2000
For example: 2019-"18"-2000 = 1
Magic Number = 18. You might want to keep that in mind.
