Re: Encoding of character for new Japanese era name after Heisei

[Doug Ewell via Unicode]

> Anyway, since emperor Akihito (明仁), the era starting in 1989 is no
> longer named after the emperor, but is Heisei (平成) "Peace everywhere".
> This already occured in the past on the Ningo system. There's no
> absolute requirement to change the era name even if there's a new
> Emperor named.

The Wikipedia article is instructive here (sorry, the French version
doesn't seem to have the same information):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_era_name#Neng.C5.8D_in_modern_Japan

Since 1868 Japan has adhered to a system of "one reign, one era name"
(一世一元). The era name is determined upon accession of the emperor
and is unrelated to his birth name.

The emperor continues to be known by his birth name until his death, at
which point he becomes known by the name of his era instead (so Emperor
Hirohito became Emperor Shōwa upon his death in 1989).

There are no indications that the abdication of an emperor, as opposed
to his death, would cause this system to be suspended.

Unicode does not have an extensive history of encoding "placeholder"
characters without knowing what they will actually be. This is probably
a Good Thing.

The four existing characters at U+337x are square compatibility
characters, with decompositions to unified ideographs. So, whatever era
name is chosen for the new emperor (probably Crown Prince Naruhito),
there is a near-guarantee that it will be immediately representable in
Unicode using normal ideographs.

A new square compatibility character, if necessary, can be encoded after
the era name is chosen. It might be fast-tracked at that time, as the
Euro sign was, but there is no emergency about this and no reason to
invent any new encoding procedures or waive any existing ones.
 
--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org

Re: Encoding of character for new Japanese era name after Heisei

[Asmus Freytag via Unicode]

  
  
The Japanese Era names are not tied to
  the personal "names of possible successors".
  
  While it is possible to spell out the name of an era using regular
  characters that have been encoded, but for time expressions it's
  been customary to have a single code point.
  
  In some ways, these special characters are not so different from
  currency symbols. Following an official announcement, they will be
  immediately and widely requested / implemented -- as long as
  Unicode assigns a code point.
  
  I'm sure the UTC will be up to handling this issue.
  
  A./
  
  On 6/2/2017 7:49 AM, Philippe Verdy via Unicode wrote:


  But will there really be a new era name with the
new emperor? All that could be made is a preservation by
principle, but this does not mean that it will be really
encoded. The lack of a "representative glyph" is a blocker.

  May be we could add instead a generic character for "New
Japanese Era" (independant of the actual era) to be used in
contexts where the precise era will not be available.
  The alternative would be to write the new era name using
Kanas (or Latin) before the composed Kanji appears. I don't
think it will block the localisation in CLDR even if it is
later changed to use a newer prefered Kanji when it will be
available.



Anyway the names of possible successors are probably
  already known: how do they currently write their name using
  Kanjis or composed Kanas in a square ? These existing
  characters may also be used as a substitute, and I think this
  will be the solution used at least in the first months/years,
  even if there's a new honorific glyph adopted for the Emperor
  name
  
  
2017-06-02 14:23 GMT+02:00 Phake Nick
  via Unicode :
  
Nowadays Unicode have encoded four characters,
  from U+337E to U+337B, as character for the four most
  recent Japanese era name, which people are using them
  quite a lot. In recent months, The intention for Japanese
  emperor to resign from the duty have been announced and
  Japan is expected to get a new era name together with the
  new emperor. It can be expected that people would want to
  type a single character for the new era name just like how
  people typed old era names now. However, with the new era
  name cominh into effect in Jan 1 2019 and the name of the
  new Japanese era is expected to be announced only half
  years ahead of the use of the character, how will Unicode
  handle the new era name?
  According to recent years Unicode release schedule, the
  announcement time will only be a few weeks before the
  official release of Unicode 11.0, and way passed the time
  of the beta. Is it possible for the character to be
  included in Unicode 11.0, or a 11.0.1 released some dates
  after? We won't know what the shape of the glyph would be
  until the era name being announced and as the era name
  itself is included in the unicode character description in
  past example, it is also not possible to come up with a
  name for the expected new character before the era name
  actually get announced, which mean if by usually process
  then an application cannot really start until the era name
  announcement have been made. Is there some methods to
  apply for inclusion of a character into Unicode without
  actually knowing what the character would be?
  Or if it's really too difficult to encode the character
  within the little amount of time ahead of the era's start,
  would it be possible to first reserve some codepoints for
  encoding of upcoming Japanese era, so that people can know
  what code point they will be using instead of using PUA?
  


  



  

Re: Encoding of character for new Japanese era name after Heisei

[Philippe Verdy via Unicode]

Anyway, since emperor Akihito (明仁), the era starting in 1989 is no longer
named after the emperor, but is Heisei (平成)  "Peace everywhere". This
already occured in the past on the Ningo system. There's no absolute
requirement to change the era name even if there's a new Emperor named.

Anyway it is true that this is a good question, but this will not depend on
the new Eperor but from experts on Japanese history, public survey and
ministry decision and legislative adoption. The switch is expected to occur
on New Year Day (Jan 1, 2019) to allow smooth transition. It may also be
delayed one year more after the nomination of the new Emperor (so year 1 of
the new Empror would still be using Heisei era without needing any year
renumbering)

The experts will anyway focus on several candidate names from wellknown
historic names that are most probably already encoded and used since long
in the Japanese litterature.

2017-06-02 16:49 GMT+02:00 Philippe Verdy :

> But will there really be a new era name with the new emperor? All that
> could be made is a preservation by principle, but this does not mean that
> it will be really encoded. The lack of a "representative glyph" is a
> blocker.
>
> May be we could add instead a generic character for "New Japanese Era"
> (independant of the actual era) to be used in contexts where the precise
> era will not be available.
> The alternative would be to write the new era name using Kanas (or Latin)
> before the composed Kanji appears. I don't think it will block the
> localisation in CLDR even if it is later changed to use a newer prefered
> Kanji when it will be available.
>
> Anyway the names of possible successors are probably already known: how do
> they currently write their name using Kanjis or composed Kanas in a square
> ? These existing characters may also be used as a substitute, and I think
> this will be the solution used at least in the first months/years, even if
> there's a new honorific glyph adopted for the Emperor name
>
> 2017-06-02 14:23 GMT+02:00 Phake Nick via Unicode :
>
>> Nowadays Unicode have encoded four characters, from U+337E to U+337B, as
>> character for the four most recent Japanese era name, which people are
>> using them quite a lot. In recent months, The intention for Japanese
>> emperor to resign from the duty have been announced and Japan is expected
>> to get a new era name together with the new emperor. It can be expected
>> that people would want to type a single character for the new era name just
>> like how people typed old era names now. However, with the new era name
>> cominh into effect in Jan 1 2019 and the name of the new Japanese era is
>> expected to be announced only half years ahead of the use of the character,
>> how will Unicode handle the new era name?
>> According to recent years Unicode release schedule, the announcement time
>> will only be a few weeks before the official release of Unicode 11.0, and
>> way passed the time of the beta. Is it possible for the character to be
>> included in Unicode 11.0, or a 11.0.1 released some dates after? We won't
>> know what the shape of the glyph would be until the era name being
>> announced and as the era name itself is included in the unicode character
>> description in past example, it is also not possible to come up with a name
>> for the expected new character before the era name actually get announced,
>> which mean if by usually process then an application cannot really start
>> until the era name announcement have been made. Is there some methods to
>> apply for inclusion of a character into Unicode without actually knowing
>> what the character would be?
>> Or if it's really too difficult to encode the character within the little
>> amount of time ahead of the era's start, would it be possible to first
>> reserve some codepoints for encoding of upcoming Japanese era, so that
>> people can know what code point they will be using instead of using PUA?
>>
>
>

Re: Encoding of character for new Japanese era name after Heisei

[Philippe Verdy via Unicode]

But will there really be a new era name with the new emperor? All that
could be made is a preservation by principle, but this does not mean that
it will be really encoded. The lack of a "representative glyph" is a
blocker.

May be we could add instead a generic character for "New Japanese Era"
(independant of the actual era) to be used in contexts where the precise
era will not be available.
The alternative would be to write the new era name using Kanas (or Latin)
before the composed Kanji appears. I don't think it will block the
localisation in CLDR even if it is later changed to use a newer prefered
Kanji when it will be available.

Anyway the names of possible successors are probably already known: how do
they currently write their name using Kanjis or composed Kanas in a square
? These existing characters may also be used as a substitute, and I think
this will be the solution used at least in the first months/years, even if
there's a new honorific glyph adopted for the Emperor name

2017-06-02 14:23 GMT+02:00 Phake Nick via Unicode :

> Nowadays Unicode have encoded four characters, from U+337E to U+337B, as
> character for the four most recent Japanese era name, which people are
> using them quite a lot. In recent months, The intention for Japanese
> emperor to resign from the duty have been announced and Japan is expected
> to get a new era name together with the new emperor. It can be expected
> that people would want to type a single character for the new era name just
> like how people typed old era names now. However, with the new era name
> cominh into effect in Jan 1 2019 and the name of the new Japanese era is
> expected to be announced only half years ahead of the use of the character,
> how will Unicode handle the new era name?
> According to recent years Unicode release schedule, the announcement time
> will only be a few weeks before the official release of Unicode 11.0, and
> way passed the time of the beta. Is it possible for the character to be
> included in Unicode 11.0, or a 11.0.1 released some dates after? We won't
> know what the shape of the glyph would be until the era name being
> announced and as the era name itself is included in the unicode character
> description in past example, it is also not possible to come up with a name
> for the expected new character before the era name actually get announced,
> which mean if by usually process then an application cannot really start
> until the era name announcement have been made. Is there some methods to
> apply for inclusion of a character into Unicode without actually knowing
> what the character would be?
> Or if it's really too difficult to encode the character within the little
> amount of time ahead of the era's start, would it be possible to first
> reserve some codepoints for encoding of upcoming Japanese era, so that
> people can know what code point they will be using instead of using PUA?
>