- * of <code>-0x7F000000</code> to <code>+0x7F000000</code>. This
- * corresponds to years from ~5,800,000 BCE to ~5,800,000 CE. Programmers
- * should use the protected constants in <code>Calendar</code> to
- * specify an extremely early or extremely late date.</p>
+ * of `-0x7F000000` to `+0x7F000000`. This corresponds to years from ~5,800,000 BCE
+ * to ~5,800,000 CE. Programmers should use the protected constants in `Calendar` to
+ * specify an extremely early or extremely late date.
+ *
+ * <p>
+ * The Japanese calendar uses a combination of era name and year number.
+ * When an emperor of Japan abdicates and a new emperor ascends the throne,
+ * a new era is declared and year number is reset to 1. Even if the date of
+ * abdication is scheduled ahead of time, the new era name might not be
+ * announced until just before the date. In such case, ICU4C may include
+ * a start date of future era without actual era name, but not enabled
+ * by default. ICU4C users who want to test the behavior of the future era
+ * can enable the tentative era by:
+ * <ul>
+ * <li>Environment variable <code>ICU_ENABLE_TENTATIVE_ERA=true</code>.</li>
+ * </ul>