Do they celebrate Lunar New Year in Japan?
Lunar New Year is widely celebrated across East and Southeast Asia. China’s celebration is perhaps the most famous of all, so much so that we often call it Chinese New Year. But many countries adopted the lunisolar calendar on which the Lunar New Year hinges, including South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Japan, however, celebrates new year on the basis of the Gregorian calendar. How come?
Japanese records mention a lunisolar calendar of Chinese origin introduced as far back as the 7th century. By the 9th century an improved calendar—better at predicting eclipses and hewing more closely to the seasons—had made its way from China to Japan. This calendar, the Senmyo calendar, would be in continuous use until the beginning of the Edo period, under the supervision of the Onmyoji, a hereditary court position assigned to matters of astrology and divination.
These calendars were used in tandem with Japanese era names (gengo), a system still used today. These era names help mark the reign of the Japanese emperor and, in the modern period, always correspond to the currently serving emperor—for example, 2025 is Reiwa 7, the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Naruhito. Historically, however, the era changed in response to important events, and an emperor’s rule could contain multiple eras.
In 1685 a more precise lunisolar calendar was developed for the shogunate, the Jokyo calendar. There were several further iterations in the 18th and 19th century, culminating in the Tenpo calendar, but the use of the lunisolar calendar, and thus Japan’s celebration of Lunar New Year, would come to an abrupt end with the end of the Tokugawa government. As was the case with many things, the Meiji brought a preference for all things Western. This included the calendar. The lunar calendar, in use for a millennium, was replaced by the Gregorian calendar (Seireki) in 1873.
Korea and China, of course, also adopted the Gregorian calendar around the turn of the 20th century but retained the primacy of the Lunar New Year. That Japan didn’t is a powerful historical example of the zeal with which it undertook westernization during the Meiji period.