Next Year is 2666 for Emperor
In 91 B.C., the first official history book of China, the Shiji (called Shi-ki in Japanese), was established. The author is Sima Qian (called Shiba Sen in Japanese). It was the age of Earlier Han Dynasty.
And, remarkably, Chinese people have been traditionally called “Han people” up to this day in a little formal manner in Japan. The Chinese letter “Han” is pronounced as “Kan” by Japanese. And “Chinese character” is called “Kan-ji” in Japanese, likewise.
Japanese written language consists of Kan-ji and Kanas. Kanas were created by Japanese about 1000 years ago based on simplified Kan-ji to simply express sounds of spoken language. Kan-ji is ideogram, but Kanas are akin to alphabetic characters.
Therefore, if you do not know a meaning of Kan-ji a sound of which is expressed in English, you cannot fully recognize the meaning of the corresponding Chinese expression. In this sense, non-Chinese are meaning-blind to Chinese names. But, the only exception is Japanese (and some Koreans), since Japanese can understand meaning of most of Chinese Kan-ji characters which are nowadays a little different from the Japanese Kan-ji system.
In the seventh century, the Yamato regime (ancient Central Government of Japan) started to compile an official history which was completed in the eighth century. The history book was called Nihon-Shoki. The book was written in the Chinese language of that age. A similar example is found in that the Bible was first written in Greek in the early days of Christianity. Anyway then Chinese dynasty knew that Japan was not an uncivilized country without an official history book.
In China, when a dynasty was vanished, the succeeding dynasty established an official history about the precedent dynasty. Therefore the whole Chinese history consists of a number of independent official history books, each representing a single dynasty.
But, Japan has the only one official history book, Nihon-shoki, since the dynasty of Japan has never changed, which had been called the Yamato regime until Emperor moved to Tokyo from Kyoto in late 19th century.
When Emperor moved to Tokyo, the Shogun Government system ended. The Shogun is the head of warriors or samurais, but the title, Shogun, was officially endowed the samurai leader with by Emperor. Nonetheless, under the Shogun Government, Emperor had no power for collecting taxes and controlling military forces. In most cases, a Shogun decided allowance for an emperor. But, no Shoguns in Japanese history dared to abolish an emperor or take himself the position of Emperor.
It is because Emperor is holly existence, playing an indispensable role of Japanese traditional religion, Shinto.
Therefore, the first and last official history book of the Yamato Regime, namely classical Empire of Japan, includes myths.
According to Nihon-shoki, the first emperor in Japan was inaugurated 660 B.C. which became the starting point of years of Emperor.
When a world-leading fighter plane was officially adopted in 2600 in the year of Emperor, it was named Zero, since lower digits of the year were zeroes. It was indeed 1940 A.D.
So, the next year 2006 AD is 2666 in the year of Emperor of Japan.
(However there is another year system officially and widely used in Japan linked with the present emperor. According to it, the next year is "Heisei 18.")
Though Japan is the only country in the world now that has a person officially called Emperor in English, it is extremely rare that the year of Emperor is used in Japan except in Shinto religious practices.
When the end of the year gets near, you might like to refer to history; if so, I have served this way for you.
“THE MOON WILL BE AS BRIGHT AS THE SUN”