The Japanese era calendar scheme is a common
calendar scheme used in
Japan, which identifies a year by the combination of the and the year number within the era. For example, the year
2006 is
Heisei 18, and
2007 is Heisei 19.As elsewhere in
East Asia, the use of nengō, also known as , was originally derived from
Chinese Imperial practice, although the Japanese system is independent of the
Chinese,
Korean and
Vietnamese era-naming systems. Unlike these other similar systems, Japanese era names are still in use. Government offices usually require era names and years for official papers.
See more at Wikipedia.org...