Heisei

The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, when his son, Akihito, acceded to the throne as the 125th Emperor. In accordance with Japanese customs, Hirohito was posthumously renamed "Emperor Shōwa" on 31 January 1989.

Thus, 1989 corresponds to Shōwa 64 until 7 January, and from 8 January. The Heisei era ended on 30 April 2019 (Heisei 31), with the abdication of Akihito from the Chrysanthemum Throne. It was succeeded by the Reiwa era as then-crown prince Naruhito ascended the throne on 1 May midnight local time.

History and meaning

On 7 January 1989, at 07:55 AM JST, the Grand Steward of Japan's Imperial Household Agency, Shōichi Fujimori, announced Emperor Hirohito's death at 6:33 AM JST, 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, announced the end of the Shōwa era, and heralded the new era name "Heisei" for the new Emperor, and explained its meaning.

According to Obuchi, the name "Heisei" was taken from two Chinese history and philosophy books, namely ''Records of the Grand Historian'' () and the ''Book of Documents'' (). In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a sentence appears in a section honoring the wise rule of the legendary Chinese Emperor Shun, reading "" (Kanbun: , ''Uchi tairaka ni soto naru''). In the ''Book of Documents'', the sentence "" (Kanbun: , ''Chi tairaka ni ten naru'', "peace on the heaven and earth") appears. By combining both meanings, Heisei is intended to mean "peace everywhere". The Heisei era went into effect immediately upon the day after Emperor Akihito's succession to the throne on 7 January 1989.

In August 2016, Emperor Akihito gave a televised address to the nation, in which he expressed concern that his age would one day stop him from fulfilling his official duties. This was an implication of his wish to retire. The Japanese Diet passed a law in June 2017 to allow the throne to pass to Akihito's son, Naruhito. After meeting with members of the Imperial House Council, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced that 30 April 2019 would be the date set for Akihito's abdication. The Era of Naruhito's reign began the next day.

Events

1989 marked the culmination of one of the most rapid economic growth spurts in Japanese history. With a dramatically strengthened yen after the 1985 Plaza Accord, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates low, sparking an investment boom that drove Tokyo property values up 60 percent within that year. Shortly before New Year's Day, the Tokyo Stock Market index, Nikkei 225, reached its record high of 38,957. By 1992, 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 (LDP), 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 only to 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.

The 1990s had an "anime boom" period marked by increased popularity of anime and anime conventions. Several anime media franchises gained global popularity such as ''Pokémon'', '' Hello Kitty'', ''Sailor Moon'', ''Saint Seiya'', '' Gundam'', ''Fist of the North Star'', ''Dragon Ball'', '' Yu-Gi-Oh'' and '' Evangelion''.

In 1995, there was a large 6.8 earthquake in Kobe, Hyōgo and sarin gas terrorist attacks were carried out on the Tokyo Metro by the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo. Failure of the Japanese government to react to these events promptly led to the formation of non-government organisations which have been playing an increasingly important role in Japanese politics since.

On 11 December 1997, the international treaty called the Kyoto Protocol to regulate greenhouse gas emissions was adopted by 192 parties in Kyoto, Japan.

During this era, Japan reemerged as a military power. In 1991, Japan made a financial contribution of $10 billion and sent military hardware for the Gulf War. However, Article 9 of the Constitution prevented a participation in the actual war, leading Iran to criticize Japan for just pledging money and did not appreciate the way Japan co-operated in the Gulf War. However, after the war, between 26 April and October 1991 six JMSDF minesweeper vessels were sent and removed 34 sea mines in the Persian Gulf to improve the safety of ships.

Following the Iraq War, in 2003, Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi's Cabinet approved a plan to send 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 UN. The mission lasted until February 2009.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the first FIFA World Cup to be held in Asia, the first to be held outside of the Americas or Europe, as well as the first to be jointly-hosted by more than one nation. This world championship for men's national football teams was jointly hosted by Japan and South-Korea to improve relations.

On 23 October 2004, the Heisei 16 an earthquake and aftershocks rocked the Hokuriku region in Niigata Prefecture, killing 52 and injuring hundreds.

In November 2005, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s robotic spacecraft Hayabusa landed on an asteroid and collected samples in the form of tiny grains of asteroidal material, which were returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft on 13 June 2010. It was the first spacecraft in history designed to deliberately land on an asteroid and then take off again. The Hayabusa mission was the first to return an asteroid sample to Earth for analysis.

After an election defeat, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe resigned suddenly, and in Autumn 2007 Yasuo Fukuda became Prime Minister. Fukuda in turn resigned in September 2008 citing political failings, and Tarō Asō was selected by his party.

In 2008, Greater Tokyo has the largest metropolitan economy in the world with a total GDP (nominal) of approximately $2 trillion (¥165 trillion).平成19年度県民経済計算
Greater Tokyo also has the largest metropolitan population in the world with an estimated 35 million.

In August 2009, for the first time, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won 308 seats in the lower house election, which ended 50 years of political domination by the LDP. As a result of the election, Tarō Asō 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.

The population of Japan peaked at 128 million in 2010. This was Japan's biggest population in history. It declined due to a low birthrate in the following years.

In July 2010, The JSDF's first postwar overseas base was established in Djibouti, Somalia.

In December 2010, Japan's 2010 National Defense Program Guidelines changed its defense policy from a focus on the former Soviet Union to China.

In 2011, the economy of China became the second largest in the world. Japan's economy descended to the world's third largest by nominal GDP.

In 2011, a sumo tournament was cancelled for the first time in 65 years over a match fixing scandal.

In March 2011, the Tokyo Skytree

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