Top pick is a familiar one, but third-place finisher is surging this year.

Every December, the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society announces the Kanji of the Year, chosen by nationwide ballot as the single Japanese-language character that best represents the events of the past 12 months. This year’s announcement ceremony, as has become tradition, took place on the famous balcony of Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, with head priest Seihan Mori painting the character on an outdoor canvas.

With this year’s later-than-usual turning of the autumn leaves providing a dazzling crimson backdrop, Mori stepped to the canvas, took brush in hand, and, under the expectant watch of the attending audience, wrote…

…OK, so Mori’s artistically stylized calligraphy might make the character a little hard to discern, but rendered in a more standard-looking font, it’s…

…as 2024’s Kanji of the Year is the character kin, which can be alternatively read as kane. There are a handful of other possible pronunciations for 金 too, which is fitting because it also has multiple meanings. Originally, the character refers to “metal,” but it’s also commonly used to mean “gold,” both the physical substance and the metaphorical sense of shining excellence. With gold coins being one of the earlier forms of currency, 金 is also commonly used to mean “money.”

▼ By the way, don’t be disappointed in yourself if you thought Mori was writing 重, the kanji for “heavy,” because it looked that way to a lot of Japanese online commenters too.

Because of the broadly adaptable linguistic nature of kanji, it’s not unusual for the Kanji of the Year to simultaneously reflect both positive and negative developments. On the joyous side of motivations among those who voted for 金 were Japan’s impressive accomplishments at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where Japanese athletes won 20 gold medals (more than any country except the U.S. and China) in events such as judo, skateboarding, fencing, breakdancing, and gymnastics. Also cited as reasons for picking 金 in 2024 were the Sado gold mines of Niigata being certified as Japan’s 26th UNESCO World Heritage site, Shohei Ohtani’s “golden” performance in Major League Baseball as he became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season and won a World Series as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Japan introducing newly redesigned yen bills for the first time in 20 years.

▼ They may not be metal or gold, but they’re still 金.

But it’s not all glittery goodness in 金-related events in 2024. The kanji also received votes from those who saw it as a symbol for Japan’s rampant ongoing price increases for food, utilities, transportation, and other necessities. Such economic pressures are also leading to growing concerns over increases in yami baito, “dark part-time jobs” in which people are recruited to make crimes in order to make some quick cash, and a slush fund scandal that damaged the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan’s reputation badly enough for it to lose control of the House of Representatives in this year’s election was another example of the dark side of 金.

金 received 12,148 votes, representing 5.47 percent of the total cast. The runner up, with 9,772 votes, was 災 (wazawai), meaning “disaster,” in reference to the powerful earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula area of Ishikawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day. Coming in third was 翔, the kanji used in the verbs kakeru/”dash” and tobu/“soar.” However, it’s almost certain that most, if not all, of the 7,487 votes 翔 received was because it can also be read as “sho,” and it’s the “Sho” part of Shohei Ohtani’s name.

▼ It’s honestly impossible to overstate just how much Shohei Ohtani is adored in Japan right now.

Since the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society first began announcing a Kanji of the Year in 1995, this is the fifth time for the voters to select 金, which was also the Kanji of the Year in 2000, 2012, 2016, and 2021. Japan’s successes at the Summer Olympics in 2012, 2016, and 2021 were also pointed to by voters at those times, so between that and the undeniable importance of economic factors in modern life, there’s a good chance that Mori will be writing 金 again in 2028.

Source: Kanji of the Year official website (1, 2, 3, 4)
Top image: SoraNews24
Insert images: SoraNews24, Ministry of Finance, Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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