Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name

Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by quelltext on Monday April 01, 2019 @01:20AM (#19540700)

This is weird. I thought this was an April Fool's joke. 冷戦 means cold war, so 令和 would mean cold peace. Not that this has an actual meaning but if we assign one it's not very positive, i.e. things will appear unpeaceful and there will be wars, but actually this is peace, in the background.

Not that this is the meaning they chose, but I find it just a bit curious.

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by hkmurakami on Monday April 01, 2019 @01:27AM (#19540738)

Those two homonym “Rei” characters do not mean the same thing.

Reiwa is a newly conjured “word” that means roughly “declaration/ordinance of peace”

https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/233980/meaning/m0u/

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by quelltext on Monday April 01, 2019 @03:51AM (#19541347)

Yeah, I'm stupid.

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by comex on Monday April 01, 2019 @06:07AM (#19541855)

If it makes you feel better, here's a (presumably) Japanese person making the same association:

https://www.reddit.com/r/newsokur/comments/b7wf5k/令という漢字/eju...

Rough translation: "Somehow this kanji feels winter-like. I guess because of a strong sense of '冷'."

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by qlk1123 on Monday April 01, 2019 @04:04AM (#19541402)

Not at all. Making mistakes is one of the best things when you learn a language. Kanjis can be complicated, but also fun. Cheers!

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by glandium on Monday April 01, 2019 @01:32AM (#19540755)

令 and 冷 are different characters. They only have the same reading, from their common 音符 (onpu), 令. Other characters with the same onpu: 零, 玲, 怜, etc. All these characters have different meanings.

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