Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicated on 30 April 2019, the first Japanese emperor to do so since 1817. In Japan, new era Reiwa has just begun and lots of people celebrated the imperial transition.
We, Japanese celebrate almost every single holiday even though we are not into religion. We go to shrine on the first day of January, we go out and do trick or treat on halloween and we celebrate Christmas for no reason. At this point I guess we just want an excuse or some reason to go out and have fun. And of course, there’s no reason not to celebrate this memorable era change.
People celebrated the moment of era-change not only in major city like Tokyo or Osaka, but also everywhere in Japan since it’s in middle of “golden week” (10 days holiday).
Some jumped off a bridge and so many people gathered in Shibuya crossing like every other holidays. It’s just so crazy how this much people are celebrating at late night when its raining.
President Trump asked how much important about this era change to Prime minister Abe and he said that this is 100 times more important than the Superbowl. Ever since I moved to US, I’ve come to the realization about how beautiful Japanese culture is and how unique to have an emperor.
Happy new era!
