Kanji of the Year


A Kanji is an adopted Chinese visual character which is used in the Japanese writing system.
The Kanji of the Year for 2018 has been announced: 災, pronounced wazawai or sai, meaning “disaster” or “misfortune.”
The Japan Kanji Aptitude Foundation each December announces a “kanji of the year,” selected by popular vote to encapsulate the year that was. Members of the public send in votes by postal mail, an official website, or voting boxes, selecting a single character and often appending an explanation for the choice. This year’s top pick, wazawai, referred to the multitude of natural disasters that afflicted the archipelago during 2018—serious earthquakes in Osaka, Hokkaidō, and Shimane Prefectures, a string of typhoons that battered the nation’s shores, torrential rains causing landslides and flooding, and the record-setting heat of summer. “As we look ahead to the coming year,” noted the JKAF press release, “many are hoping that the new imperial reign will bring with it a lower number of disasters to deal with.”
I think this looks like an erupting volcano, plus a flood or storm....
Source: Nippon.com

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