We are currently in the Heisei Era that started in 1989 when Emperor Hirohito died and his son Akihito became the emperor.

On the left is a recent postmark. It follows an ideal format. The location (Nakano Kita) is in both Japanese (read from left to right) and English. The year is in both Heisei and Gregorian. The "14" is for Heisei 14 which is 2002. In the middle, the numbers "02.1.5" is for Jan. 1, 2002. And on the right, "8-12" indicates the time period (8 am to 12 noon) when the postcard was mailed. This is nice.

But the postmark on the right is more abbreviated, showing only the location, Heisei year, month, and day.