With Little Fanfare, Japan Just Changed the Way It Uses Its Military

A new era may have dawned in Japan, but it has nothing to do with the country’s next emperor. Instead, without much fanfare, the government took a small but significant step in the security domain. On April 26, in a move unlike any since 1945, it deployed its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) abroad to join a multinational force not connected to the United Nations.

In early April, Tokyo announced that the reign of Japan’s new emperor, Crown Prince Naruhito, who took the throne on May 1, will be known as the Reiwa era, translated as “beautiful harmony.” Few outside of Japan paid much heed to the news, but inside the country, era names are important. Although it also uses the Gregorian calendar, the era name is used in public and on private forms, documents, and certificates, during ceremonies, and even on calendars and in some newspapers. “Beautiful harmony,” in other words, has been trending in Japan.