The Kanji of the Year was announced Thursday, and for 2024 the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society selected 金, which can be read “きん” and “かね,” and means “gold/money.”
Every December, we look back on the language that permeated our societal discourse for the year to get a sense of what we all went through over the past 12 months. English words chosen to represent 2024 include “demure,” “brain rot” and “brat,” whose Japanese equivalents would be (loosely): 控えめ (hikaeme), スマホ脳 (sumaho nō, smartphone brain) and ブラット (buratto), which suggests someone being a 悪ガキ (warugaki, literal “brat”) while expressing ありのままの自分 (ari no mama no jibun, one’s true self) in a playfully defiant way.
Earlier this month, Japan’s 流行語大賞 (ryūkōgo taishō, buzzword of the year) was selected from a pool of 20 buzzwords, and “ふてほど” (futehodo) — an abbreviation for a TBS drama series titled, “不適切にもほどがある！” (Futekisetsu nimo Hodo ga Aru!, Extremely Inappropriate!) about a time-traveling おじさん (ojisan, old man) — won top honors.