{"id":9779,"date":"2009-12-11T13:15:02","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T17:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=9779"},"modified":"2009-12-11T13:19:26","modified_gmt":"2009-12-11T17:19:26","slug":"wit-life-61-%e4%bb%8a%e5%b9%b4%e3%81%ae%e6%bc%a2%e5%ad%97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/11\/wit-life-61-%e4%bb%8a%e5%b9%b4%e3%81%ae%e6%bc%a2%e5%ad%97\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #61: \u4eca\u5e74\u306e\u6f22\u5b57"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITLi<\/strong><\/em><\/a>fe<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>is a periodic series written by professional Translator\/<\/em>Interpreter\/<\/em>Writer Stacy Smith<\/a><\/strong> (Kumamoto-ken, 20<\/strong><\/em>00-03)<\/strong>.\u00a0 Recently she\u2019s been <\/em>watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends togeth<\/em>e<\/em>r <\/em>w<\/em>ith h<\/em>er own<\/em> <\/span><\/span>obser<\/em>vat<\/em>ions.<\/em>\"20091211STXKF0427111220091F\"<\/p>\n

Yesterday at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu Temple the official announcement of \u4eca\u5e74\u306e\u6f22\u5b57 (kotoshi no kanji<\/em>), or the Kanji of the Year, took place.\u00a0 This is an annual contest run by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society that had a record number of applications from all over the country this year, 161,365.\u00a0 Coming off of last yea\"\"r’s\"\" \"\"selection of \u5909 (hen<\/em>) or change, this year’s winner by 14,093 ballots was \u65b0 (shin<\/em>) or new.\u00a0 Among the reasons why this character was picked were the new political administration and the new strain of the flu.<\/p>\n

This morning’s news interviewed both young and seasoned prominent political figures regarding what their picks would have been.\u00a0 One was new LDP Diet member 28-year old Shinjiro Koizumi, son of the former PM, who chose \u521d (hatsu<\/em>) or first.\u00a0 He explained his reasoning as, “This year was my first political appearance and my first time being elected.\u00a0 Everything for me was a first!”\u00a0 38-year old Osaka governor Toru Hashimoto picked \u5d29 (kuzureru<\/em>), or to collapse, because “the country’s system and the administration system are starting to collapse.”<\/p>\n

Finally, 52-year old former entertainer Miyazaki governor Hideo Higashikokubaru opted for \u5206 (bun<\/em> or wakeru<\/em>) or to divide, saying that “because of the administration change<\/a> it is a turning point (\u5206\u5c90\u70b9 or bunkiten<\/em>) for this period, and this also refers to the division of roles \uff08\u5f79\u5272\u5206\u62c5 or yakuwari buntan<\/em>\uff09 between the federal and local governments.\u00a0 Also, it marks the division involved with this year’s sorting out operations (\u4e8b\u696d\u4ed5\u5206\u3051 or jigyo shiwake<\/em>).<\/p>\n

What would your pick for kanji of the year be?\u00a0 If shin<\/em> sounds good to you, what aspect of Japan’s newness would you highlight?\u00a0 I would have to go with the new relationship between the U.S. and Japan since the DPJ victory and the accompanying redefinition of the U.S.-Japan alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator\/Interpreter\/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).\u00a0 Recently she\u2019s been watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations. Yesterday at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu Temple the official announcement of \u4eca\u5e74\u306e\u6f22\u5b57 (kotoshi no kanji), or the Kanji of the Year, took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,4,30,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anecdote-article","category-articlejournalism","category-japan-trends","category-translatinginterpreting","category-wit-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t