Japan’s word of the year is the kanji character for “tax”- a reflection of growing public anxiety over the cost of living and impending tax rises in the character. The single character can be read as zei or mitsugi and was unveiled at Kiyomizu Buddhist temple in Kyoto. The temple’s head priest, Seihan Mori, reproduced it with a huge brush on a white washi paper canvas. The character was chosen through vote by 5,797 people, according to the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, which has organised the annual contest since 1995.
The second place went to sho/atsui, the character for hot, in recognition of this year’s sweltering summer in Japan and concern about climate change. The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine captured the public’s attention, with the character for war (ikusa/tatakau) coming in third place. The fourth, fifth and sixth most popular words – tiger, victory and ball – were inspired by the Hanshin Tigers baseball team’s first Japan Series title since 1985.
Japan PM Fumio Kishida recently unveiled a package of tax cuts aimed at easing pressure amid mounting disquiet over future tax rises to fund defence spending amid concern over China’s military activity in the region. It is the second time that taxation has been chosen as kanji of the year. It also finished top of the poll in 2014.
Japan chose the kanji character for war as the symbol for 2022. Olympic-themed choices dominated 2021 as Japan chose “gold” as kanji of the year in honour of the Tokyo Olympics. The 2020 winner was “mitsu”, meaning dense, crowded and close.