Anyone else gets display issues with 令? It shows up incorrectly in certain android locations (keyboard, hangouts) but looks fine in firefox. The stroke order illustration on jisho also has the last stroke wrong [1] [1] https://jisho.org/search/%E4%BB%A4%20%23kanji
Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
31–40 of 87 posts
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
The new name just uses standard characters, but what you're probably referring to is the fact that Unicode 12.1 will have a character for the two of them compressed into one glyph. Details: http://blog.unicode.org/2018/09/new-japanese-era.html Compressed glyphs like that are sometimes used on paperwork and whatnot, but everyday usage just uses the standard characters.
What are the benefits of this approach compared to a ligature at the font-level?
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#33Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#34Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#35Anyone else gets display issues with 令? It shows up incorrectly in certain android locations (keyboard, hangouts) but looks fine in firefox. The stroke order illustration on jisho also has the last stroke wrong [1] [1] https://jisho.org/search/%E4%BB%A4%20%23kanji
This might be a problem arising because of Han unification. In Japanese, the character is commonly written with a vertical final stroke (at least in print), whereas in Chinese it's a diagonally down and to the right. However, they are encoded as the same in Unicode. What gets displayed depends on the font choice, possibly aided by somewhat hacky language hints. This particular character is the second example in the l…
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a combination of two existing characters, the rei as in meirei/命令 (order, command) and wa as in heiwa/平和 (peace, harmony). No new characters need to be reserved.
Rei, 令, in this case means 'good, fortunate', not command.
Is there some rule or convention that explains why 令 means 'good, fortunate' here? Is it due to the usage in the 7th century poetry that is referenced in the article?
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The new name just uses standard characters, but what you're probably referring to is the fact that Unicode 12.1 will have a character for the two of them compressed into one glyph. Details: http://blog.unicode.org/2018/09/new-japanese-era.html Compressed glyphs like that are sometimes used on paperwork and whatnot, but everyday usage just uses the standard characters.
What are the benefits of this approach compared to a ligature at the font-level?
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#38This is stupid. Make no mistake: this is not the Japanese "culture". Most private organizations in Japan have already switched to the Western calendar, and its only user is the Japanese government (although it's one of the biggest ones, sadly). They should stop wasting their time and energy for this farce. And yes, one could argue that this will create extra IT jobs that would be unnecessary if they abandoned the sys…
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rei, 令, in this case means 'good, fortunate', not command.
Huh, according to Jim Breen's dictionary ( http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic ) 'good, fortunate' is '礼' (rei). '令' (rei) is listed as 'command, decree'. The official character that is being used is '令'. Is there some rule or convention that explains why 令 means 'good, fortunate' here? Is it due to the usage in the 7th century poetry that is referenced in the article?
https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%A4%E6%9C%88-660939
If we have to trace back even further, it can date back to the ancient Chinese classic, the Classic of Poetry, where it is being used as good/respectful:
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BB%A4%E9%97%BB%E4%BB%A4%E6%...
Re: Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name
#40This is stupid. Make no mistake: this is not the Japanese "culture". Most private organizations in Japan have already switched to the Western calendar, and its only user is the Japanese government (although it's one of the biggest ones, sadly). They should stop wasting their time and energy for this farce. And yes, one could argue that this will create extra IT jobs that would be unnecessary if they abandoned the sys…
Is it really such a big deal? It's not like they're _introducing_ regnal eras, it's just a new era name for the system they were already using. BTW, both this comment and the article hint at a connection with right-wing nationalism. I won't claim to understand Japanese politics, but AFAIK Abe's government is increasing immigration to Japan to far higher levels than ever before. Surely that's going to have a far bigge…
Financially, things are conservative as well. Abenomics is literally Reganomics with "Regan" replaced by "Abe" -- trickle down theory and all. And it works just as well as Reganomics didn't too ;-) Abe has also been quite busy trying to rewrite the constitution so that Japan can get into international conflicts where their allies are involved. Previously Japan was only allowed to get into conflicts where Japan itself was under threat. There is some speculation that the emperor only abdicated in order to force the government to do a bunch of constitutional work and delay the constitutional work that Abe had ordered. Abe managed to survive a general election, so if that was the goal it ended up being fruitless.
In terms of nationalism, I don't think that Japan (or its government) fits the definition. There are protectionist attitudes towards food trade, but that is understandable given that more than 1 million people starved after WWII due to the fact that Japan had imported most of its staple foods at the time and got blockaded. There are actual laws that date from the end of WWII that enforce this protectionism, so it's hard to blame the current government :-)
There are, of course, nationalist people in Japan (and even nationalist political parties), but they do not represent Japanese mainstream thinking in any way shape or form. It is very much the loony fringe.