Another Golden Year for Kanji

December 12 is “Kanji Day” in Japan, so selected because the date, 12/12, can be playfully pronounced as ii ji ichi ji, or “a single good character.” Today the famed temple Kiyomizudera in Kyoto hosted the annual ceremony to announce the Kanji of the Year, an event sponsored by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. The foundation received a total of 153,562 votes in this year’s contest; kin was chosen by 6,655 of the voters as the kanji of 2016.

This was the third time for “gold” to take the gold medal in this contest, held annually since 1995. It previously topped the list in 2000 and 2012—both Olympic years, as this year was, pointing to the main reason for many voters’ selection: Japan’s performance in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer.

The 22 Kanji of the Year named to date.

The character can also mean “money” when pronounced kane, and this provided many voters with the reason they needed to put it at the top of their picks. The year was also one for political scandals involving money, notably the use of political funds for private purposes by Masuzoe Yōichi, which cost him his seat as governor of Tokyo in June.

Also mentioned as reasons that kin should represent 2016 were US President-elect Donald Trump’s (shockingly unnatural) shock of blond hair; the “golden milestone” of 3,000 hits for trans-Pacific baseball superstar Suzuki Ichirō in the Major Leagues; and the glittering costume worn by the comedian Pikotarō (Kosaka Daimaō) in his wildly popular “Pen Pineapple Apple Pen” video.

Coming in second in the voting, with 4,723 votes, was 選 (sen/erabu), “select” or “choose,” which resonated with people who had witnessed the British electorate choose to leave the European Union and the American voters pick Trump as their next president. In Japan, too, a change to election law that allowed 18- and 19-year-olds to vote for the first time made this kanji a popular pick. The third- and fourth-place finishers were 変 (hen/kawaru; “change” or “strange”) and 震 (shin/yureru; “shake” or “upheaval”), both previous winners in the contest. The fifth-place finisher was 驚 (kyō/odoroku; “surprise” or “shock”), also inspired by the year’s unpredictability. A full list of the top 10 selections is below.

The chief priest of Kiyomizudera, Mori Seihan, appeared on the grand wooden deck of the temple to write the winning character on a sheet of washi paper 1.5 meters high and 1.3 meters across.