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http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-whatwg-archive/2014Apr/0051.html The main sticking point is what to do with Japanese era years. Quoting mysel from the e-mail above: "For example, Meiji 45 lasts until July 30th 1912, and Taishō 1 starts then. Without date context, how would such values get round-tripped? If we assume a hypothetical type=year displays Japanese era years in the UI, but transmits Gregorian years over the wire, how do we ensure that the same year comes back? If round-tripping is important, then this is actually a _different_ input type than Gregorian years. Presumably, round-tripping is important here. For example, I would presume that the sentence "Emperor Meiji said 'Hello' in Meiji 45" has rather different connotations than "Emperor Meiji said 'Hello' in Taishō 1"."
(In reply to Ian 'Hixie' Hickson from comment #1) > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-whatwg-archive/2014Apr/0051.html > > The main sticking point is what to do with Japanese era years. Quoting mysel > from the e-mail above: > > "For example, Meiji 45 lasts until July 30th 1912, and Taishō 1 starts then. > Without date context, how would such values get round-tripped? If we assume > a hypothetical type=year displays Japanese era years in the UI, but > transmits Gregorian years over the wire, how do we ensure that the same year > comes back? That's a good point. > Presumably, round-tripping is important here. For example, I would presume > that the sentence "Emperor Meiji said 'Hello' in Meiji 45" has rather > different connotations than "Emperor Meiji said 'Hello' in Taishō 1"." That is correct. For example, my brother was born in Heisei 1, which indicates that his birthday is on or after January 8th, 1989. But more importantly, if someone was born in Showa 64, then it signifies that he or she was born between January 1st, 1989 and January 7th, 1989.
That pretty much kills the idea of having an <input type=year>, then. Bummer.
Given the issues described above, I think it would make sense to have a Japanese Year input type, maybe, but I'm struggling to see much point in an arbitrary "year" input type.