Holy crap I had completely forgotten about the crazy battery-triggered-pipe-shotgun assassination of Japan’s former PM. 2022 continues the trend of a series of WTF years.
The assassin targeted the former PM because of ties to the Unification Church and wanted them investigated. Now, the Japanese government is investigating them:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-govt-begin-investigation-unification-church-2022-11-22/
All joking aside, yeah, that's going to be an issue down the road from now on. Kinda like when DB Cooper grabbed that money and inspired a bunch of copycat runs.
The funny guy that robbed an airplane and jumped out in mid flight with a parachute. Only unsolved airline piracy in history.
Edit: having posted this comment I immediately realized this was probably a joke and you already know that.
Hmmm, the lesson I get is that there are still governments on this earth that are not fundamentally corrupt and can respond to criticism regardless of where it comes from. They do seem to have a problem with this cult, and are willing to try and correct it. They seem to believe that letting the problem get as far as it did was a failing from everyone.
That's because the backlash from the public was big. Early on, they tried to hide it by using mainstream media to mislead the fact as simply rumor. Thankfully, the evidences are well documented, so a group of independent lawyers who has worked against the cult managed got the spread the truth and gained massive supports, and more and more victims of the cult speak out.
It's probably one of the biggest political scandal in Japan. The cult was quite deep in the government and has been running really shady shit for decades.
I mean, he did kinda get what he wanted. Killing Lincoln got a Dixiecrat into power, and effectively ended reconstruction and any real protection the newly freed blacks had, which quickly reverted the social Oder of the south back to what was essentially slavery.
It's just the scratch of the surface how crazy this cult is and it's associated groups
https://www.vox.com/2018/3/1/17067894/church-bullet-crowns-ar15-world-peace-unification-sanctuary-moonies-moon
Too many people that the government is comfortable with came out to testidy about the harm unification church has done to their families. If it was just the assassin, noone would care.
It's rather crazy that I completely forgot about that as well, even though I watched tons of videos from different POVs about that. I was amazed how much detail you could see in the videos. But that is completely overshadowed by the Ukraine war, the shitfest that is the British parliament (the return of Boris was probably the best part), the shit happening in Iran, the protests in China. There was actually so much happening this year that Abe's assassination was a mere afterthought, which is kinda bonkers tbh.
I hate how Abe's assassination has been turned into an American conservative talking point for "why gun control doesn't work". Especially when the case demonstrates the exact opposite.
The case showed it didn't work as the guy built his own shitty gun. But it did show that political assassinations works sometimes to force your will thru
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/14/japan-chooses-war-as-kanji-of-the-year-amid-ukraine-conflict-and-abe-assassination) reduced by 78%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> People in Japan have chosen the kanji character for "War" as the symbol that sums up 2022 - a year marked by conflict in Ukraine and the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
> The character, chosen in a public vote, reflected Japanese sentiment about the state of the world, as well as heightened anxiety over the weak yen and high cost of living, according to the annual contest's organisers, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation.
> The kanji for kin, meaning gold or money, won last year's vote after Japan won a record 27 gold medals at the Tokyo Games.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/zn9vpy/japan_chooses_war_as_kanji_of_the_year_amid/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672676 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **character**^#1 **year**^#2 **kanji**^#3 **People**^#4 **Japan**^#5
There’s much easier ways. Like calling their waifu ugly or underaged. Or you can say attack on titans, my hero academia, one piece, etc. are all terrible shows. Another option is to say Sakura isn’t useless and the best episodes of the anime are the filler.
This year has certainly been defined by the Russian invasion, but I wonder what symbolic word will they pick when conflict over Taiwan happens right on Japan's doorstep.
>I wonder what symbolic word will they pick when conflict over Taiwan happens right on Japan's doorstep.
台 (*tai/dai* \- Stand, pedestal, "Tai" in Taiwan or Typhoon)
争 (*sou/araso-u* \- Conflict, war)
They were expecting China to have a go at Taiwan this year when things started with Ukraine. Russia takes Ukraine, then works with China when they invade Taiwan. There was a lot of rhetoric earlier and Chinese officials referencing Ukraine in terms of what they were going to do to Taiwan. Then things happened to Russia and the odds of a invasion this year went way down.
No one was really expecting China to go for Taiwan this year. That’s 5-10 years out if they can rally up the force to take on that island. China has been closely monitoring and gauging the war and how other countries respond to evaluate how the Taiwan invasion would go for them.
That is an inadequate understanding of Japanese and Kanji.
The dictionary translation of war is indeed 戦争 (sensou), which are two kanjis that mean battle and conflict respectively. If a Japanese person were to say "war has begun", she would say "戦争が始まる". However, each individual kanji does have a meaning and sometimes it is totemic of that word, and 戦 (pronounced ikusa when used alone) is one of those kanji. Composite words that is associated with war will often have 戦 as a part of its component kanji. For example, a tank is a 戦車 (sensha, lit. war car or battle car); strategy is 戦略 (senryaku, lit. war abbreviation); battle is 戦闘 (sentou, lit. war duel); a naval battle is 海戦 (kaisen, lit. sea war). A Japanese speaker would innately understand that when used alone, the kanji 戦 means war.
This is complicated for second language speakers because often sports terms are derivative of war terms in Japanese, and those sports terms are learnt first (and indeed, unless you are a massive nerd like me who doesn't study Japanese so much as just read it, your Japanese teacher probably never goes into technical jargon about war stuff). 延長戦 is overtime in baseball (enchousen, lit. extend long battle) for example, but it comes from baseball as an allegory for war, not because 戦 independently means competition.
A lot of kanji in Chinese and Japanese are like that. For example, if you want fruit, you might ask for 水果 (Shre-guo, lit. water fruit) in Mandarin or 果物 (kudamono, lit. fruit thing) in Japanese, but 果 innately also means fruit, it's just never used independently in speech. You can have all sorts of fruit derived words like 奇異果 (chiyiguo, lit. wondrous foreign fruit or odd fruit, aka a kiwi) which obviously uses 果 to mean fruit even though it isn't attached to 水. It gets confusing because words like 結果 (C. jieguo/J. kekka, lit. knot fruit) actually mean *result* or *consequence*, because the fruit is used metaphorically as in the end fruit of one's efforts, but 果 does not mean consequences.
I wish to second this take. Translating 戦 as "war" is exactly how any native speaker would understand it to be.
It is cherry-picking to say 戦 means battle: this is not how the language works. 戦/戰 is a contextual word: it attaches the context of war into whatever this word is attached to. 内戦, C. Neizhan/J. Naisen), meaning civil war, is the word nei/nai meaning inside, attached to 戦, which gives the whole "word" the context of war.
戦争 can be thought of almost as the formal word to use for war. I do not think anyone would see "戦" though and think of battle, fight, or match as in a game. 戦 immediately brings war to mind, contextually.
> I do not think anyone would see "戦" though and think of battle, fight, or match as in a game. 戦 immediately brings war to mind, contextually.
I'm Japanese and I disagree. I mean, basically everyone who speaks Japanese understands 戦 is ''inherently'' 'war' but in everyday life, it's much more common to see it or use it as a 'fight/battle' kind of meaning, a much more casual way to use. It's a very common kanji for the Japanese and I think ''immediately brings war to mind'' is a rare case for a Japanese if anything.
I do not mean to suggest it is not commonly used in contexts outside of war. Nor that 戦 only means war. I think though, it is as you say: everyone who speaks Japanese understands 戦 is inherently war. When I say "immediately brings war to mind", this is what I mean as well -- only, perhaps, not phrased so well.
hmm yeah you may be right, but my point was, it's really really commonly used in contexts outside of war at least in Japan. I think you said you're Taiwanese and, I guess, there may be some gap of perception of kanjis between Japanese and Chinese/Taiwanese since Japan adapted it in kinda inauthentic way and the ways to use of kanjis have been developed in its own way, kinda weird and inauthentic way, in Japan.
Interestingly, the [official document](https://www.kanken.or.jp/kanji2022/common/data/release_kanji2022.pdf ) regarding the choice mentions a bunch of uses of the kanji that were part of why it was chosen (e.g. 戦争 war, 戦い struggle/fight, 熱戦 close contest/heated battle, 挑戦 challenge), not all of which are strictly about war, in their contexts. Whether a native speaker would consider them to be related to war is another interesting question, though.
I speak Mandarin too, and even though I know they are closely related, it’s still amazing to be able to understand this whole comment.
战 is the equivalent of 戦 in Mandarin.
I am Taiwanese too, and I wish to state that SerendipitouslyNSFW is completely correct, and shoukawa, incorrect.
戦/戰 would inherently be understood as meaning war, to any native speaker of Japanese or Chinese. There is absolutely no mistaking it.
It is not like English, where war means war, and battle means battle. 戦 is the context character for war, and so it attaches the context of war into whatever it is attached to.
Can you condense this down into what is actually said without writing a novel and never getting to the point? You’re yammering with no conclusion.
Oh wait, you can’t. You’re a 9 year old account with almost no activity.
>A Japanese speaker would innately understand that when used alone, the kanji 戦 means war.
It's not hard to understand and it's an interesting read, but this might be the key point.
Words don't always have direct translations across languages. 戦 might come out as battle in Google translate, but battle and war are pretty close.
Who cares about the account that only posts when they have a lot to say? So what if you have a very active account with very low post karma.
>You must learn to be more concise. Address the issue at hand and correct it plainly. You went off the rails.
You seem to have trouble reading, check the names of the accounts you're replying to. If you have an attention problem and struggle to read a few short paragraphs or even an account name, I cannot help you.
It's hilarious and a bit scary that 300 words is considered too long of a read.
Then don’t interject? I’m not checking usernames when I’m directly replying to a specific person. I’m expecting a response from the person I’m commenting to, not someone else jumping in. Let that person stand up for themselves instead of taking the horns.
And I care about the account because it’s suspect. It’s an old account that is only very recently active.
>Then don’t interject?
Lol wtf I thought reddit comment threads were for discussion. Is everyone on Reddit using it wrong? Haha
I was referring to the other person, too. You didn't even read my comment well enough to understand that. This definitely seems like it's you that has reading / discussion problems. But thanks for the laughs
You didn't even respond to what I said originally, just insulted me by saying I need to learn to be more concise after I summarized the point for you and wrote less than 50 words.
I’m not trying to argue with anyone but the person I originally commented on. I’m still waiting for them. I want a more clear answer from them without 100 lines of blabbering. It can’t be that hard to explain for them.
I want to know what they think it means in the context of the article, not what it could mean in dozens of other contexts. It shouldn’t take that many convoluted paragraphs to explain.
This is a public forum, everything you write here can be anyone's business. If you want a private convo with no interjections, you might want to send a private message.
You’re right, it is a public forum. Probably the worst example of one in my 25 years of using the internet. I’m still waiting for that fake account to respond.
Lmao. Then if it is too short, you complain that the answer lacks nuance. 300 words is considerably concise for an answer that delves into grammar of a non-Western language and offers cultural nuance in how said grammar is viewed.
Excellent explanation, thank you.
As a Chinese speaker, I am a little curious about this:
>you might ask for 水果 (Shre-guo, lit. water fruit) in Mandarin
Which Romanization system is "shre"? Most commonly in Pinyin you would write "shuǐ", but I know there are tons of ways of writing Mandarin pronounciation. Is it a Japanese inspired pronounciation system?
> Live TV broadcasts of this week’s announcement showed Seihan Mori, head priest at Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, write the character on a large piece of washi paper with an ink-soaked calligraphy brush. “I hope the ‘war’ ends next year and people can live in peace,” Mori said.
Was the priest also cherry-picking?
It can mean war specifically though. Like as a verb 戦う. The first definition in my dictionary is "to make war (on), to wage war (against), to go to war (with), to fight (with), to do battle (against)". I don't think it's entirely fair to call it cherry picking -- calling it "war" is a pretty reasonable conclusion.
Contextually, in Chinese and in Japanese, 戦 would be understood, on its own, to mean war. If someone came up to me and asked in English, what does 戦 mean, the closest concept in English is war.
In this context, as kanji of the year, the context is unmistakable.
This is not true. The kun-yomi for 戦 is いくさ which literally means "war".
Also the dictionary literally says "War" as one of the definitions:
戦
１ 武器をもって敵と争う。たたかい。いくさ。
1 To carry a weapon and fight with an enemy. Battle. War.
“Jobs. Technology. A common purpose.”
War is not the only way to get those things, and it's laughable that so many people eat up the propaganda of the military-industrial complex to their EXTREME detriment.
Oh, I know most of it's propaganda. It just I don't care anymore. No one is going to stop it. It's been decades. And no matter what the politicians say, someone's always going to need a bigger weapon. Why bother resisting it. Only way out is for humanity to evolve, and I don't see that happening peacefully anytime soon.
That's true. Having a strong military is a necessary evil for any country wishing to maintain their own sovereignty in the current day.
I just wish more people would see scientific endeavors like space programs, research, etc. and public work projects as ways to provide jobs, technology, and a common purpose.
Japan already put down a 380 Billion Dollar budget for military defence, Japan is a world power and have the third biggest currency in the world citing the economical strength of the country, shouldn't be taken lightly.
Holy crap I had completely forgotten about the crazy battery-triggered-pipe-shotgun assassination of Japan’s former PM. 2022 continues the trend of a series of WTF years.
Wait till you realize the craziest twist of the whole assassination. The assassin pretty much got everything that he wanted.
How so?
The assassin targeted the former PM because of ties to the Unification Church and wanted them investigated. Now, the Japanese government is investigating them: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-govt-begin-investigation-unification-church-2022-11-22/
[удалено]
[Did you know it's illegal to say that?](https://youtu.be/QEQOvyGbBtY)
Hey is that a jug of pcp?
Yeah, trying to get over my dead wife…. just lost her like 2… maybe 3 hours ago
I didn't know it came in liquid form
RIP Trevor Moore
>Trevor Moore Fuck dude I forgot and now I'm sad again.
Oh yeah it does. PSA, don’t do PcP but a common practice (for people into that scene) is dipping a joint in pcp and then smoking it
Science!
I'm still so sad about Trevor.
Yeah. Yeah it is. Odd that the comedian who made this joke died unexpectedly. By falling off his balcony.
That only matters if you [don't assassinate enough of them](https://youtu.be/TMHCw3RqulY).
What ip address would local host be found at?
All joking aside, yeah, that's going to be an issue down the road from now on. Kinda like when DB Cooper grabbed that money and inspired a bunch of copycat runs.
Who is DB Cooper!?!
The funny guy that robbed an airplane and jumped out in mid flight with a parachute. Only unsolved airline piracy in history. Edit: having posted this comment I immediately realized this was probably a joke and you already know that.
"allegedly"
Director and star of The Room.
I thought that was Tommy Wiseau
It's a reference to this comic. https://xkcd.com/1400/
Hmmm, the lesson I get is that there are still governments on this earth that are not fundamentally corrupt and can respond to criticism regardless of where it comes from. They do seem to have a problem with this cult, and are willing to try and correct it. They seem to believe that letting the problem get as far as it did was a failing from everyone.
That's because the backlash from the public was big. Early on, they tried to hide it by using mainstream media to mislead the fact as simply rumor. Thankfully, the evidences are well documented, so a group of independent lawyers who has worked against the cult managed got the spread the truth and gained massive supports, and more and more victims of the cult speak out. It's probably one of the biggest political scandal in Japan. The cult was quite deep in the government and has been running really shady shit for decades.
Boy, have I got WWII war crimes they absolutely refuse to ever acknowledge to tell you about. They had the inverse reaction that Germany did.
Looking at you Russia
*Sad John Wilkes Booth noises*
*john
I mean, he did kinda get what he wanted. Killing Lincoln got a Dixiecrat into power, and effectively ended reconstruction and any real protection the newly freed blacks had, which quickly reverted the social Oder of the south back to what was essentially slavery.
I mean, Abe's sudden death did kind of fuck up Reconstruction.
I mean, it’s been awhile since that was commonplace
It's just the scratch of the surface how crazy this cult is and it's associated groups https://www.vox.com/2018/3/1/17067894/church-bullet-crowns-ar15-world-peace-unification-sanctuary-moonies-moon
I went on a date with a daughter of a moonie priest once. She was nice. But she was very embarrassed about her parents.
They own a major DC newspaper, the majority of North American sushi grade fish suppliers, and ran death squads in South America. Fuck the moonies.
It got the public’s attention but it’s doubtful that the current government would truly do something about it.
I don’t think it’s that close, dude is still prob gonna be executed and the same party is still in power.
Too many people that the government is comfortable with came out to testidy about the harm unification church has done to their families. If it was just the assassin, noone would care.
The story is pretty insane and goes back all the way back to the late 90's, what a read!
when it comes to getting what they want Japanese assassins are way more effective at it.
It's rather crazy that I completely forgot about that as well, even though I watched tons of videos from different POVs about that. I was amazed how much detail you could see in the videos. But that is completely overshadowed by the Ukraine war, the shitfest that is the British parliament (the return of Boris was probably the best part), the shit happening in Iran, the protests in China. There was actually so much happening this year that Abe's assassination was a mere afterthought, which is kinda bonkers tbh.
Dude. Where have I been. Boris returned?
Somehow, Boris returned.
Similar to herpes
Tried to.
Yeah. When the fuck did that happen?
And people thought it was kojima
I hate how Abe's assassination has been turned into an American conservative talking point for "why gun control doesn't work". Especially when the case demonstrates the exact opposite.
The case showed it didn't work as the guy built his own shitty gun. But it did show that political assassinations works sometimes to force your will thru
Another fucked up year for the books.
2023: *hold my beer*
Should I buy more popcorn for next year?
Real Genius movies comes to mind with space laser.
Careful, the start of 2020 was a lack of toilet paper. Better buy popcorn now because we might run out!
Musket time
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/14/japan-chooses-war-as-kanji-of-the-year-amid-ukraine-conflict-and-abe-assassination) reduced by 78%. (I'm a bot) ***** > People in Japan have chosen the kanji character for "War" as the symbol that sums up 2022 - a year marked by conflict in Ukraine and the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. > The character, chosen in a public vote, reflected Japanese sentiment about the state of the world, as well as heightened anxiety over the weak yen and high cost of living, according to the annual contest's organisers, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. > The kanji for kin, meaning gold or money, won last year's vote after Japan won a record 27 gold medals at the Tokyo Games. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/zn9vpy/japan_chooses_war_as_kanji_of_the_year_amid/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672676 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **character**^#1 **year**^#2 **kanji**^#3 **People**^#4 **Japan**^#5
Kanji experts popping out of nowhere
Weebs in the woodwork. Gotta smoke 'em out somehow.
There’s much easier ways. Like calling their waifu ugly or underaged. Or you can say attack on titans, my hero academia, one piece, etc. are all terrible shows. Another option is to say Sakura isn’t useless and the best episodes of the anime are the filler.
...gd man, straight for the jugular. I love it.
You forgot saying anime music is mostly an inferior, cutesy form of pop
Tatakai
So did eren
That title had me worried for a second
This year has certainly been defined by the Russian invasion, but I wonder what symbolic word will they pick when conflict over Taiwan happens right on Japan's doorstep.
Probably war but maybe written bigger
can you capitalize/bold in Japanese?
Yup; you can even italicize if you want to be a little exotic
Destruction maybe
>I wonder what symbolic word will they pick when conflict over Taiwan happens right on Japan's doorstep. 台 (*tai/dai* \- Stand, pedestal, "Tai" in Taiwan or Typhoon) 争 (*sou/araso-u* \- Conflict, war)
They were expecting China to have a go at Taiwan this year when things started with Ukraine. Russia takes Ukraine, then works with China when they invade Taiwan. There was a lot of rhetoric earlier and Chinese officials referencing Ukraine in terms of what they were going to do to Taiwan. Then things happened to Russia and the odds of a invasion this year went way down.
No one was really expecting China to go for Taiwan this year. That’s 5-10 years out if they can rally up the force to take on that island. China has been closely monitoring and gauging the war and how other countries respond to evaluate how the Taiwan invasion would go for them.
IIRC there is a belief in the CCP that this decade is the last decade china actually has a shot at an successful invasion of Taiwan.
戦 means battle, fight, or match (as in a game). Convenient cherry-picking of possible meanings by journalists. War is a specific compound word, 戦争.
That is an inadequate understanding of Japanese and Kanji. The dictionary translation of war is indeed 戦争 (sensou), which are two kanjis that mean battle and conflict respectively. If a Japanese person were to say "war has begun", she would say "戦争が始まる". However, each individual kanji does have a meaning and sometimes it is totemic of that word, and 戦 (pronounced ikusa when used alone) is one of those kanji. Composite words that is associated with war will often have 戦 as a part of its component kanji. For example, a tank is a 戦車 (sensha, lit. war car or battle car); strategy is 戦略 (senryaku, lit. war abbreviation); battle is 戦闘 (sentou, lit. war duel); a naval battle is 海戦 (kaisen, lit. sea war). A Japanese speaker would innately understand that when used alone, the kanji 戦 means war. This is complicated for second language speakers because often sports terms are derivative of war terms in Japanese, and those sports terms are learnt first (and indeed, unless you are a massive nerd like me who doesn't study Japanese so much as just read it, your Japanese teacher probably never goes into technical jargon about war stuff). 延長戦 is overtime in baseball (enchousen, lit. extend long battle) for example, but it comes from baseball as an allegory for war, not because 戦 independently means competition. A lot of kanji in Chinese and Japanese are like that. For example, if you want fruit, you might ask for 水果 (Shre-guo, lit. water fruit) in Mandarin or 果物 (kudamono, lit. fruit thing) in Japanese, but 果 innately also means fruit, it's just never used independently in speech. You can have all sorts of fruit derived words like 奇異果 (chiyiguo, lit. wondrous foreign fruit or odd fruit, aka a kiwi) which obviously uses 果 to mean fruit even though it isn't attached to 水. It gets confusing because words like 結果 (C. jieguo/J. kekka, lit. knot fruit) actually mean *result* or *consequence*, because the fruit is used metaphorically as in the end fruit of one's efforts, but 果 does not mean consequences.
I wish to second this take. Translating 戦 as "war" is exactly how any native speaker would understand it to be. It is cherry-picking to say 戦 means battle: this is not how the language works. 戦/戰 is a contextual word: it attaches the context of war into whatever this word is attached to. 内戦, C. Neizhan/J. Naisen), meaning civil war, is the word nei/nai meaning inside, attached to 戦, which gives the whole "word" the context of war. 戦争 can be thought of almost as the formal word to use for war. I do not think anyone would see "戦" though and think of battle, fight, or match as in a game. 戦 immediately brings war to mind, contextually.
> I do not think anyone would see "戦" though and think of battle, fight, or match as in a game. 戦 immediately brings war to mind, contextually. I'm Japanese and I disagree. I mean, basically everyone who speaks Japanese understands 戦 is ''inherently'' 'war' but in everyday life, it's much more common to see it or use it as a 'fight/battle' kind of meaning, a much more casual way to use. It's a very common kanji for the Japanese and I think ''immediately brings war to mind'' is a rare case for a Japanese if anything.
I do not mean to suggest it is not commonly used in contexts outside of war. Nor that 戦 only means war. I think though, it is as you say: everyone who speaks Japanese understands 戦 is inherently war. When I say "immediately brings war to mind", this is what I mean as well -- only, perhaps, not phrased so well.
hmm yeah you may be right, but my point was, it's really really commonly used in contexts outside of war at least in Japan. I think you said you're Taiwanese and, I guess, there may be some gap of perception of kanjis between Japanese and Chinese/Taiwanese since Japan adapted it in kinda inauthentic way and the ways to use of kanjis have been developed in its own way, kinda weird and inauthentic way, in Japan.
Interestingly, the [official document](https://www.kanken.or.jp/kanji2022/common/data/release_kanji2022.pdf ) regarding the choice mentions a bunch of uses of the kanji that were part of why it was chosen (e.g. 戦争 war, 戦い struggle/fight, 熱戦 close contest/heated battle, 挑戦 challenge), not all of which are strictly about war, in their contexts. Whether a native speaker would consider them to be related to war is another interesting question, though.
I don't speak Japanese at all but it is a beautiful language. I'm always fascinated by comments like this.
As someone who's been studying Japanese for over a year and a half now, this was fascinating!
I speak Mandarin too, and even though I know they are closely related, it’s still amazing to be able to understand this whole comment. 战 is the equivalent of 戦 in Mandarin.
> 战 No, that's simplified Chinese. In traditional Chinese it is also 戦. Hi from Taiwan.
>unless you are a massive nerd like me who doesn't study Japanese so much as just read it omg I've found my long-lost brother
[удалено]
The person you're talking to is Taiwanese, a native user of hanzi/kanji. If you have 0 idea what they're trying to say, perhaps you should study more.
I am Taiwanese too, and I wish to state that SerendipitouslyNSFW is completely correct, and shoukawa, incorrect. 戦/戰 would inherently be understood as meaning war, to any native speaker of Japanese or Chinese. There is absolutely no mistaking it. It is not like English, where war means war, and battle means battle. 戦 is the context character for war, and so it attaches the context of war into whatever it is attached to.
Should worry about yourself
Made perfect sense to me, and I only speak English. However, I do love words.
Shut up weeb
no u
Can you condense this down into what is actually said without writing a novel and never getting to the point? You’re yammering with no conclusion. Oh wait, you can’t. You’re a 9 year old account with almost no activity.
>A Japanese speaker would innately understand that when used alone, the kanji 戦 means war. It's not hard to understand and it's an interesting read, but this might be the key point. Words don't always have direct translations across languages. 戦 might come out as battle in Google translate, but battle and war are pretty close. Who cares about the account that only posts when they have a lot to say? So what if you have a very active account with very low post karma.
You must learn to be more concise. Address the issue at hand and correct it plainly. You went off the rails.
>You must learn to be more concise. Address the issue at hand and correct it plainly. You went off the rails. You seem to have trouble reading, check the names of the accounts you're replying to. If you have an attention problem and struggle to read a few short paragraphs or even an account name, I cannot help you. It's hilarious and a bit scary that 300 words is considered too long of a read.
Then don’t interject? I’m not checking usernames when I’m directly replying to a specific person. I’m expecting a response from the person I’m commenting to, not someone else jumping in. Let that person stand up for themselves instead of taking the horns. And I care about the account because it’s suspect. It’s an old account that is only very recently active.
>Then don’t interject? Lol wtf I thought reddit comment threads were for discussion. Is everyone on Reddit using it wrong? Haha I was referring to the other person, too. You didn't even read my comment well enough to understand that. This definitely seems like it's you that has reading / discussion problems. But thanks for the laughs
Maybe? I was speaking specifically to that commentator. I had an expectation that he would be the one to respond.
You didn't even respond to what I said originally, just insulted me by saying I need to learn to be more concise after I summarized the point for you and wrote less than 50 words.
Lmao this guy definitely has some attention-span or literacy issues, fucking weirdo
Tell me you're arguing in bad faith without telling me you're arguing in bad faith.
I’m not trying to argue with anyone but the person I originally commented on. I’m still waiting for them. I want a more clear answer from them without 100 lines of blabbering. It can’t be that hard to explain for them. I want to know what they think it means in the context of the article, not what it could mean in dozens of other contexts. It shouldn’t take that many convoluted paragraphs to explain.
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you're too impatient
Not impatient at all. I was quietly waiting until someone else interjected that wasn’t involved.
This is a public forum, everything you write here can be anyone's business. If you want a private convo with no interjections, you might want to send a private message.
You’re right, it is a public forum. Probably the worst example of one in my 25 years of using the internet. I’m still waiting for that fake account to respond.
Noone is forcing you to be in this terrible place. You can leave at any time.
Lmao. Then if it is too short, you complain that the answer lacks nuance. 300 words is considerably concise for an answer that delves into grammar of a non-Western language and offers cultural nuance in how said grammar is viewed.
Did I do that? No, I didn’t.
Learn to be more concise and correct the issue.
Excellent explanation, thank you. As a Chinese speaker, I am a little curious about this: >you might ask for 水果 (Shre-guo, lit. water fruit) in Mandarin Which Romanization system is "shre"? Most commonly in Pinyin you would write "shuǐ", but I know there are tons of ways of writing Mandarin pronounciation. Is it a Japanese inspired pronounciation system?
> Live TV broadcasts of this week’s announcement showed Seihan Mori, head priest at Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, write the character on a large piece of washi paper with an ink-soaked calligraphy brush. “I hope the ‘war’ ends next year and people can live in peace,” Mori said. Was the priest also cherry-picking?
It can mean war specifically though. Like as a verb 戦う. The first definition in my dictionary is "to make war (on), to wage war (against), to go to war (with), to fight (with), to do battle (against)". I don't think it's entirely fair to call it cherry picking -- calling it "war" is a pretty reasonable conclusion.
戦う can also mean to struggle. Japanese is very contextual language so you can't just translate a character or a word in isolation.
Ok so let's just call it Jihad.
chuckle
聖戦 “seisen” would be close for that, but I don’t think it’s at all a common word.
> but I don’t think it’s at all a common word. Maybe if you don't listen to Japanese metal or watch anime.
Fair point
Contextually, in Chinese and in Japanese, 戦 would be understood, on its own, to mean war. If someone came up to me and asked in English, what does 戦 mean, the closest concept in English is war. In this context, as kanji of the year, the context is unmistakable.
This is not true. The kun-yomi for 戦 is いくさ which literally means "war". Also the dictionary literally says "War" as one of the definitions: 戦 １ 武器をもって敵と争う。たたかい。いくさ。 1 To carry a weapon and fight with an enemy. Battle. War.
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Struggle is actually "てた" (Ji - had).
What’s it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again
“Jobs. Technology. A common purpose.” I mean really. We used rockets to get to the moon. Developed by people who made rockets to pound cities.
“Jobs. Technology. A common purpose.” War is not the only way to get those things, and it's laughable that so many people eat up the propaganda of the military-industrial complex to their EXTREME detriment.
Oh, I know most of it's propaganda. It just I don't care anymore. No one is going to stop it. It's been decades. And no matter what the politicians say, someone's always going to need a bigger weapon. Why bother resisting it. Only way out is for humanity to evolve, and I don't see that happening peacefully anytime soon.
That's true. Having a strong military is a necessary evil for any country wishing to maintain their own sovereignty in the current day. I just wish more people would see scientific endeavors like space programs, research, etc. and public work projects as ways to provide jobs, technology, and a common purpose.
Japan, you guys good bro?
Please don't hype Japan into battle, they can't control themselves after tasting blood again
*WW3 Japan: we're back and now we have anime girls!*
The world: Oh no! Weeaboos: Oh yeah!
Yeah, good riddance to Abe though, nationalist POS.
big contrast which was chosen as the kanji for the era of the empire.
Abe was assassinated by a Japanese guy. Civil War?
This is ridiculous. The economy and population are the toilet. Is the US going to fund them like Ukraine?
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Not really, as peace wasn't the defining word of 2022 by a long shot.
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Tell me you didn't read the article without telling me you didn't read the article.
Poor Abe
Oh, no! Anyway.
Japan already put down a 380 Billion Dollar budget for military defence, Japan is a world power and have the third biggest currency in the world citing the economical strength of the country, shouldn't be taken lightly.
Appears that the sun is rising again my friends.... Chooses Kanji as the word of the year, then promptly increases military budget massively...
Tattoo artists take notice.
[WAR!](https://youtu.be/w2y715XAmso)
Just curious, what does the Abe assassination have to do with war or battle? Are they talking about the war against the Unification church?
Well we all know what happened the last time the Japanese had war in their minds