New Japanese Era Support for Z/OS

New Japanese Era Support for z/OS

On April 30, 2019, the Japanese Heisei era will end and on May 1, a new era named Reiwa, will come into effect, reflecting a change to the Japanese imperial reign. Besides the new era name, a new ligature (symbol) has also been defined representing the Reiwa era.

A new FIXCAT has been created to identify ++PTFs that provide new Japanese era support:

Category Description Keyword IBM.Function.Reiwa Fixes that enable and support the new Japanese REIWA/K Reiwa era.

For z/OS V2.1, V2.2 and V2.3, the following support has been identified:

• PTF for APAR OA56512 which provides support for the new ligature in z/OS Unicode Services.

• PTFs for APARs PH05611 and PH08908 which provides support for the new Japanese era name and ligature in Language Environment.

• Web deliverable for the z/OS Font Collection which provides support for the new ligature in over 40 WorldType fonts. This support will be made available by April 26, 2019 from: http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/downloads/

• PTFs for APARs PH12469 and PH13040 which provides support for the new ligature in AFP Outline and AFP Raster fonts included in z/OS Font Collection.

Other IBM products on the z/OS platform impacted by this include:

• IBM Personal Communications (PCOMM). For availability of fixes, see: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10882282

• IBM Host On-Demand (HOD). For availability of fixes, see: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10882284

• IBM Host Access Transformation Services (HATS). For availability of fixes, see: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10882288

This Flash will be updated with additional information as it becomes available. Please check back periodically.