I had to deal with the previous transition, and that one was going to be the result of the death of the emperor. Therefore, software was not allowed to include

I had to deal with the previous transition, and that one was going to be the result of the death of the emperor. Therefore, software was not allowed to include any provision for transition to a new date system, because doing so would imply that the emperor might die someday, which was strictly forbidden. I don't know whether it was an actual law, but there was zero tolerance for including any provision for changing the Showa date system. As a foreign (non-Japanese) company, we just used the western-style date almost everywhere except for published documents to skirt this problem. Doing the wrong Japanese thing would have earned us serious hostility from the Japanese business press, but foreigners doing dates the foreign way would tolerated as mere foreignness.