2010年漢字一文字「暑」


At the end of every year, the Japan Kanji [i.e. Chinese character] Proficiency Certification Society solicits from the public the kanji that best sums up the past year.

A ceremony takes place at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera Temple where the selected kanji is publicly put to parchment by the head priest, presently Seihan Mori.

The kanji selected this year was the character for “hot,” pronounced sho or atsu.

This character was chosen because of the record high temperatures experienced in Japan this year.

© JapanVisitor.com

新常用漢字

The Japanese Ministry of Education announced last week that the number of Kanji for Common Use is to increase by 196 characters.

In 1981, the list of characters Japanese school children were expected to master by the end of high school topped out at 1,945.

As of 2012, it will jump to 2,136.

Among the new kanji are:

熊（くま） bear
挨拶（あいさつ）greetings
妖艶（ようえん）fascinating, bewitching
瑠璃（るり）lapis lazuli
腫瘍（しゅよう）tumor

All of the kanji on the Ministry's list may appear on university entrance exams, and the additional 196 may be added to the exams beginning in 2015.

© JapanVisitor.com

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２００９年漢字一文字「新」


At the end of every year, the Japan Kanji [i.e. Chinese character] Proficiency Certification Society solicits from the public the kanji that best sums up the past year.

A ceremony takes place at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera Temple where the selected kanji is publicly put to parchment by a calligrapher.

The kanji selected this year was the character for “new,” pronounced shin or atarashii.

This character was chosen because of swine influenza, which in Japanese is 新型（しんがた、shingata), or "new type."

Moreover, the election of the "new" government - 新政権（しんせいけん、shin seiken）- and its attendant hopes and fears were another reason for the choice.


© JapanVisitor.com

２００８年漢字一文字「変」



At the end of every year, the Japan Kanji [i.e. Chinese character] Proficiency Certification Society solicits from the public the kanji that best sums up the past year.

A ceremony takes place at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera Temple where the selected kanji is publicly put to parchment by a calligrapher.

The kanji selected this year was the character for “change,” pronounced “hen”. The reasons given for this year’s choice are the economic changes that happened this year with the plummet in the value of stocks and the soaring of the value of the yen, the change in the public’s consciousness regarding contaminants in food (presumably the Chinese milk powder scandal – not such a convincing reason when Japan has had no shortage of similar domestic incidents), and the political reforms that have happened in Japan, as well as in the United States with the election of Barack Obama.

Change was also posited as a theme in relation to the changing fortunes of Japan – for the better - in terms of Nobel prizes awarded and Olympic medals won.

Out of 111,208 proposals from the general public, “hen” (i.e. change) was the winner, making up 6,031 of them. In second place was “kin” (i.e. money), followed by “raku” (i.e. fall/drop), then “shoku” (i.e. food), then “ran” (i.e. confusion/disarray).


The character “hen” displayed above was kindly written by the Tokyo calligrapher Ransui Yakata for JapanVisitor.

© JapanVisitor.com