We talk about timekeeping in Japan and Korea (even though we’re bad at the
Korean stuff), pensions, and (not) speaking Japanese in public.

Transcript

K: So, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the date. 

C: Yeah? Like our date?

K: (laughs) No, like the date in Japan because I don’t know- some people
probably know and some people maybe don’t know – but japan has two different
dates. It has the Emperor date, and that’s the era, and then it has the solar
calendar date. And so the solar calendar date is January through December and
pretty much how we keep track of time in the United States. 

C: Yes.

K: That’s the solar calendar. And then it has the emperor calendar, and I
don’t know how to write Heisei at all. But that’s the previous era. I knew how
to read it. And so, I don’t know, it was a trick of my mind making me feel good
about my ability to read, and now the Reiwa era that just started, it’s Reiwa
1, I can’t read it. I know what it is, but I can’t read it. It’s not natural to
me, and it’s making me feel like the illiterate person I am.

C: Mmm.

K: Yes, I’m illiterate. I’m just embracing that. I’m illiterate.

C: But nobody knew how to read it until they came out and announced how it
would be read. 

K: Yeah. And I watched the fanfare and all of that, but now everybody- it
just like becomes a part of their thing. And I don’t know. The new era, there
was so much fanfare, and it was a big deal, I thought it was going to be a
year-long thing, and it wasn’t. It only lasted for a month. I- like- so I just
feel personally let down by it.

C: Yeah. So it was interesting- the issue with introducing a new era, which
is supposed to happen when a new emperor ascends the throne

K: Yeah.

C: Which happened either the end of May or beginning of June. I don’t
remember exactly the date.

K: Yeah.

C: And they announced what the name of who it would be about a month before
that. But all of the government forms in Japan have the era names on them for
like your birthdays and everything. And so you have to fill that out. So they
had to reprint tons and tons of government forms and company forms.

K: My phone interestingly enough for like three months had no date. (laughs)

C: Mmm. “I don’t know what year it is.”

K: Yeah, for three months it just didn’t have a date, and I thought “That’s
weird.” 

C: Yeah, so for month and day of the month, Japan uses the Common Era
system. Which in Japan, it’s called- they have a kanji for it. It means the
Western system.

K: But isn’t that the solar calendar? 

C: Technically, it’s the lunar-solar calendar.

K: What do you mean?

C: It’s got both the month- it accounts for both the moon and the sun.

K: What are you talking about?

C: Some cultures use a lunar-solar calendar that doesn’t align perfectly
with the- a lunar-solar calendar that doesn’t align with Current Era. 

K: I thought that’s the lunar calendar. I thought that the Middle East and
China use the lunar calendar. And that Europe, the United States, Canada,
Southern Africa, and Australia New Zealand use the solar calendar.

C: So China uses a lunar-solar calendar so that the year- one year is the
time for revolution around the sun one time. It just doesn’t set New Years at
the same time. So it’s slightly shifted. The lunar

K: But what about Eid in all of that?

C: Yeah. The lunar calendar rotates because they do twelve lunar months, and
there are really about thirteen lunar months in every year. So, Eid and Ramadan
rotate throughout the year. 

K: Yeah.

C: So they occur at a different time of- a different season over several
years.

K: Yeah. I think something that’s really cool in Korea; yo