The government decided to appoint Kyoto University Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, 56, who is a Nobel Prize laureate, as a member of a specialist panel offering opinions on the new era name, government officials said Monday.
The government will decide on and announce the new era name on April 1.
Two women, novelist Mariko Hayashi, 64, and Chiba University of Commerce Prof. Midori Miyazaki, 61, will also be part of the panel, which is expected to comprise nine members, including Sadayuki Sakakibara, 75, former chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren).
The panel will be asked to give opinions on several era name candidates short-listed by the chief cabinet secretary, before the government chooses the name.
When Heisei was chosen as the new era name in 1989, the specialist panel consisted of eight members. They included the NHK president, the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association chairman and the president of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association, who were invited from the media, and the president of the Japan Association of National Universities from the education sector. The only woman on the panel was a former president of the National Women's Education Center.
For the new panel, the government intends to appoint members from the media who currently hold the positions named above.
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