They are about to explain it, I am watching the TV right now.
Rei is best girl confirmed
From what I can gather, it means "following order of harmony". "Rei" typically means something along the lines of "order", but in this case it means following such order, and "wa" of course means "harmony".
令 when used in as the leading character in a jukugo word can mean your [relative] i.e. your older brother, your niece, etc.
和, while means peace and harmony, also means japanese style in certain words. Japanese style in a physical, cultural sense, i.e. japanese clothing, food, rooms, etc.
So in a clunky way, I could interpret this to mean "Your Familiar Japanese Style & Culture" or to lob off the clunky bits and give it some ambiguity "Your Japan", which in a way feels individualistic and patriotic. Maybe a bit nationalistic, but I'd rather look at it positively.
Your Japan, Orderly and Peaceful. For better or worse, it really does reflect the country.
So there used to be Showa, now there's Heisei, and soon there'll be Reiwa. Odd pattern.
On another note, guess it's time to reset all the calendars over there to Year 1 again. Unless we'll still be using Heisei years for a while as we transition.
Abe also mentioned that it means "The people beautifully working together with their hearts, resulting in a striving culture" (my translation). https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/amp/1904/01/news090.html
I don't know but it ironically reminds me of rerr
My understanding is the official changeover date will be when the current emporer abdicates.
Like Jenny said, historically it changes on the day the Emperor does.
For example, the first 7 days of 1989 were Showa 64, then Heisei 1 started on January 8th (Coincidentally, this makes cars marked as being produced during Showa 64 extremely collectable and rare).
In this case, the abdication is set for April 30th, so that's gonna be the last day of Heisei 31 and May 1st will be the beginning of Reiwa 1.
Just one month actually. May 1st.
Should have called it "Hentai", literally wasted everyone's time.
Oh well...
I was reading an additional article, where some people asked for it to be extended to like 6 months after the era starts so people can update the technological systems or something.
the government decided that that the tradition was important enough that it should be followed. I'm not fussed either way since none of this affects me of course, but it might be interesting to read about down the line
(my memory of the article isn't very accurate unfortunately)
https://twitter.com/kami_zake/status/1112569709369520128
Japanese Twitter is pretty fun right now.
That picture is one of the most photoshoppable things I've ever seen.
