Every year Japanese choose a kanji character that represents the society feeling of the year that ends. The most voted character this year was 偽 (gi, nise), it means “falsehood, lie, deceive, pretend”.
The bit internal problem in Japan this year was the loss of more than 50 million records from the Japanese Social Security systems. That means that the government doesn’t know who has been paying or not. The government promised to recover all the data, so they would be able to know who can receive a pension. The those promises started to become lies, and Japanese society started to loose confidence. The former prime minister Shinzo Abe resigned and Jiminto(Liberal Democratic Party) lost the Sangiin elections. Those are the main reasons why this year the kanji of the year is 偽=Falsehood.
A monk writing 偽 (gi, nise). Picture from Mainichi
On 2005 and 2006the selected ones were 愛 (ai: love) y 命 (inochi: life). This year seems to be much more pessimistic than the previous ones.
3 replies on “Falsehood, deceive – 偽”
I still wait for the day for the word of the year to be… “エロ”
Happy (Jappy) New Year ~
明けましてお(･∀･)め(･∀･)で(･∀･)と(･∀･)う！
It looks like the government isn’t getting any closer to fixing the pensions debacle, and with constant controversies coming from the Agriculture and Defense Ministries, it’s not surprising that many in Japan feel deceived. It certainly makes me wonder what 2008 has in store for the country, politically. Will the DPJ gain more ground as the Japanese get more frustrated with the LDP’s bungling?