Wikipedia

Japanese calendar era bug

The Japanese calendar era bug is a possible computer bug related to the change of the Japanese era name.

Background

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The Japanese calendar has era names that change with the reign of the Japanese emperor. As much of the initial rise of modern computing had occurred during the Heisei era, most software had only supported that era.[1]

A new era name was expected with the 2019 Japanese imperial transition. However, since the change of eras is infrequent, most software had not been tested to ensure that it would behave correctly with an additional era. To ensure that the new era would be handled correctly, some systems were provided test mechanisms to simulate a new era ahead of time.[2]

In early April 2019, the new era name was announced to be Reiwa for "beautiful harmony."

Documented errors

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Some minor problems have been reported due to improper handling of the era transition.

  • ATMs placed inside the Lawson chain of konbini reported that due to a banking holiday, funds deposited would not be available until May 7, 1989, due to a date conversion improperly using Heisei 1 (1989) instead of Reiwa 1 (2019).[3]

Fixes

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  • Windows 10 version 1803 included a registry entry with placeholder information for the expected era transition, intended to help users discover any software limitations around the expected change to the new era.[2][4]
  • macOS Mojave 10.14.5 and iOS 12.3 included support for the Reiwa era.[5][6]
  • Unicode code point U+32FF was reserved in September 2018 for representing the new era name,[7] and Unicode 12.1 included U+32FF ㋿ SQUARE ERA NAME REIWA.[8]
  • The GNU C Library was updated to include the new era name in the 2.30 release.[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Era Handling for the Japanese Calendar - Windows applications". docs.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  2. ^ a b kexugit (12 April 2018). "The Japanese Calendar's Y2K Moment". docs.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  3. ^ Baseel, Casey (30 April 2019). "ATMs in Japan are saying they'll transfer your money back in time to 1989". SoraNews24. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  4. ^ "Summary of new Japanese era Windows updates - KB4469068". support.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  5. ^ "Download macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Update". Apple Support. May 13, 2019. Archived from the original on October 15, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  6. ^ Peterson, Jake (April 9, 2019). "Apple Just Released iOS 12.3 Public Beta 2 for iPhone, Features Small Updates to Wallet & Date/Time". Gadget Hacks. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  7. ^ "New Japanese Era". Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  8. ^ "Unicode 12.1.0". Retrieved 2019-05-01.
  9. ^ "22964 - The Japanese Era name will be changed on May 1, 2019". Retrieved 2019-05-01.
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