Can someone explain the meaning of 画期的?


The BOJ seems to like this word and it is translated as either "epoch-making"
or "groundbreaking"

[Original Japanese
sentence](https://www.boj.or.jp/announcements/press/koen_2013/ko130412a.htm/):

>
> この点、日本銀行は、1月の金融政策決定会合において、自らの判断で「物価安定の目標」を消費者物価の前年比上昇率2％と定め、これをできるだけ早期に実現するという画期的な約束をしました。

[Official
translation](https://www.boj.or.jp/en/announcements/press/koen_2013/ko130412a.htm/):

> At the Monetary Policy Meeting held in January, the Bank -- on its own
> judgment -- set the price stability target at 2 percent in terms of the
> year-on-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) and made a
> groundbreaking commitment to achieve that target at the earliest possible
> time.

In other places the BOJ has translated this as "epoch-making." But epoch-
making events to a native English speaker would mean like ... [the fall of
Rome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dates_of_Epoch-Making_Events) rather than a
small change in the policy of a central bank.

I get the basic etymology of what's going on with the Japanese but I have a
two-part question arising from this:

(1) Does this word's meaning really rise to the level of creating a new epoch
in Japan? (2) What more natural equivalent can you think of for the English?

Examples always help!




The term 画期的 in its definition refers to an event so momentous that it heralds
the start of a new age (時代). The term epoch making, from what I can tell,
appears to exist in Japanese as エポックメイキング, which might be why that English
definition is attached to it. Indeed, in English such an event could be
described as 'epoch making.'

But it's metaphorical in Japanese. We reserve the term epoch making for events
like those listed in the question. But what about trivial things that can
_usher in a new era_? It's the same sort of concept, I think. Epoch making
could be a literal translation, but it doesn't have the same nuance.

Perhaps in Japanese the term epoch making has been taken and modified to fit
that level. Googling "epoch making" in English will give you pages of results
for the meaning of the expression, but very few examples of it actually being
used, yet [大辞泉 has エポックメイキング in its definition for
画期的](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%94%BB%E6%9C%9F%E7%9A%84?dic=daijisen&oid=03385200).

A more appropriate term would be _revolutionary_ , or _groundbreaking_ , or
maybe even _game changing_. These don't carry nearly the sense of scale and
gravity that the term "epoch making" inspires in English. 画期的 obviously, as
used in the BOJ example, is _not_ conveying something on the level of the fall
of Rome. That's why the translation provided uses "groundbreaking" instead.

This is why I think that revolutionary is a good choice. We call a lot of
things revolutionary even though the actual concept of a revolution is pretty
grandiose.




The term 画期的 in its definition refers to an event so momentous that it heralds
the start of a new age (時代). The term epoch making, from what I can tell,
appears to exist in Japanese as エポックメイキング, which might be why that English
definition is attached to it. Indeed, in English such an event could be
described as 'epoch making.'

But it's metaphorical in Japanese. We reserve the term epoch making for events
like those listed in the question. But what about trivial things that can
_usher in a new era_? It's the same sort of concept, I think. Epoch making
could be a literal translation, but it doesn't have the same nuance.

Perhaps in Japanese the term epoch making has been taken and modified to fit
that level. Googling "epoch making" in English will give you pages of results
for the meaning of the expression, but very few examples of it actually being
used, yet [大辞泉 has エポックメイキング in its definition for
画期的](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%94%BB%E6%9C%9F%E7%9A%84?dic=daijisen&oid=03385200).

A more appropriate term would be _revolutionary_ , or _groundbreaking_ , or
maybe even _game changing_. These don't carry nearly the sense of scale and
gravity that the term "epoch making" inspires in English. 画期的 obviously, as
used in the BOJ example, is _not_ conveying something on the level of the fall
of Rome. That's why the translation provided uses "groundbreaking" instead.

This is why I think that revolutionary is a good choice. We call a lot of
things revolutionary even though the actual concept of a revolution is pretty
grandiose.

