Announcement of Reiwa era sparks surge in internet traffic for WA property group

The announcement of the name of Japan’s new Imperial era has resulted in a boom in traffic for an Australian property group.

On Monday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that the country’s new Imperial era will be named Reiwa.

The announcement led to a surge in traffic to reiwa.com, which is the website for The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, also known as REIWA.

The Reiwa era will begin on 1 May 2019 with the term coming from an existing compilation of Japanese poetry and also represents fortune, peace and harmony.

REIWA CEO Neville Pozzi said 70% of traffic to reiwa.com today were Japanese people, mistaking the real estate portal for their country’s new imperial era.

Pozzi said the spike in attention from Japan could be an opportunity to lure foreign investment back into the state.

“REIWA is the number one trending hashtag on Twitter, and we even had comments on social media from Japanese people asking the bidding price of REIWA’s domain name,” he said.

“As an Institute, we want to embrace all of this traction and use it as an opportunity to entice migration and foreign investment back into our state in a fun and light-hearted way.”

“The Institute is making the most of its time in the social media spotlight, with hopes that this draws some much needed attention to the WA property market.”