According to the news, there were 285,406 entries this year. 暑/sho has gained 14,537votes (approximately 5%) and won first place. 暑 means being hot, heat etc. In Japan, during summer, it was brutally hot throughout the country. Many people suffered from heat stroke. It was reported every day how many people had died of heat stroke. Agriculture and fishery have been seriously damaged since then. The unusual weather caused a sharp increase in vegetable prices, which made people's lives difficult. The temperature of the sea around Japan was higher than usual. Because of that, in October, some kinds of fish which are usually sold at the market didn't appear near Japan. This is largely because a large number of people chose 暑.Sunday, December 12, 2010
This year, hot weather and China have had a major impact on Japanese people--One Kanji describing the Japan of 2010
In Japan, December is traditionally the time to look back on the year. There are some events relating to this tradition. One of them is picking one Kanji (漢字/Chinese characters) describing the Japan of 2010. It was announced a few days ago.
The Kanji of the year is decided in a ballot. It means that anyone is allowed to choose one Kanji that best describes the Japan of the year and enter his/her own choice, and then the Kanji that the largest number of people have chosen is announced as the kanji of the year. When you enter your own choice, you are required to write the reasons for it.
According to the news, there were 285,406 entries this year. 暑/sho has gained 14,537votes (approximately 5%) and won first place. 暑 means being hot, heat etc. In Japan, during summer, it was brutally hot throughout the country. Many people suffered from heat stroke. It was reported every day how many people had died of heat stroke. Agriculture and fishery have been seriously damaged since then. The unusual weather caused a sharp increase in vegetable prices, which made people's lives difficult. The temperature of the sea around Japan was higher than usual. Because of that, in October, some kinds of fish which are usually sold at the market didn't appear near Japan. This is largely because a large number of people chose 暑.
Other than that, two incidents made people think of 暑. One is that in Chile, the 33 trapped miners managed to cope with "heat" and were rescued. The other is the Japanese asteroid probe called Hayabusa. The probe withstood very high temperature("hot") when it entered the atmosphere, and succeeded in returning to the earth from the asteroid Itokawa. About a month ago, it tuned out that particles which the probe brought back were definitely from the asteroid Itokawa. Since this news gave a dream and hope to people struggling with the current recession, it impressed many people.
Actually, what surprised me most is the Kanji in second place, 中/chu or naka. 中 mainly indicates 中国/chugoku (China in English) . Admittedly, the Shanghai Expo, a surge in number of Chinese tourists in Japan, the political conflict over an island, the embargo on the export of rare earth and the Nobel Peace Prize drew considerable attention. On top of that, I've realized that many Japanese people were shocked by Chinese diplomacy and responses by Beijing. However, I didn't expect at all 中 to be in second place. Since I already got used to the Chinese ways while I was in China, I underestimated the impact of these incidents on people.
According to the news, there were 285,406 entries this year. 暑/sho has gained 14,537votes (approximately 5%) and won first place. 暑 means being hot, heat etc. In Japan, during summer, it was brutally hot throughout the country. Many people suffered from heat stroke. It was reported every day how many people had died of heat stroke. Agriculture and fishery have been seriously damaged since then. The unusual weather caused a sharp increase in vegetable prices, which made people's lives difficult. The temperature of the sea around Japan was higher than usual. Because of that, in October, some kinds of fish which are usually sold at the market didn't appear near Japan. This is largely because a large number of people chose 暑.