News Character for gold (金) selected as kanji of 2024

The kanji "kin" (金), meaning "gold," was chosen as the most representative character of 2024. This choice reflects Japan's numerous gold medal wins at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics and Shohei Ohtani's exceptional year. Additionally, the character "Kane," a homonym of "kin," signifies money, which has been a significant topic in Japan due to political scandals, online scams, and rising living costs. In a televised ceremony at Kyoto 's Kiyomizu Temple, Chief Buddhist Priest Seihan Mori ceremonially wrote the kanji "kin" in large calligraphy on traditional Japanese paper, symbolizing the year's most significant theme.

The selection for the 30th annual poll run by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation is based on votes cast by the general public. The foundation received 221,971 answers. Of those, 12,148 were for gold, the fifth time that the kanji has been No.1. The second most popular kanji was 災, sai (disaster) with 9,772 votes. Third with 7,486 votes was 翔, sho, (soar), the first character of Shohei Ohtani's name. Next were 震, shin (quake) and 選, sen (election).

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Last year, the kanji of the year was tax (税, zei).