‘Zei’ picked as Japan’s kanji of 2023 amid tax hikes, rising cost of living

It has been a taxing year for many in Japan and the character “zei”, which refers to taxes, has been chosen by the public as the kanji character that best represents 2023.

Kanji are Chinese characters which have been adopted into the Japanese writing system.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation has organised nationwide polls to pick a kanji of the year since 1995. 2023’s winner garnered 5,976 votes of the 147,878 cast, The Japan Times reported on Dec 12.

Voters gave reasons such as tax hikes and cuts being heavily covered by the media and policymakers throughout the year, which sparked anxiety about

increasing cost of living in Japan.

Other voters cited the introduction of an invoice system which allows people to pay tax to a municipality of their choice in return for gifts, but might result in freelance or self-employed workers having to pay more taxes.

The kanji was written with a giant calligraphy brush on a 1.5m-tall, 1.3-m wide Japanese paper in Kyoto’s popular Kiyomizu temple by chief Buddhist priest Seihan Mori, newspaper The Mainichi reported on Dec 12.

“I feel as though Japanese people are watching the tax situation seriously,” he said.

“Zei” was also kanji of the year in 2014, when Japan raised its consumption tax from 5 per cent to 8 per cent.

The kanji “sho”, which means heat, received the second-highest number of votes as a result of the heatwaves that hit Japan in early 2023.

“Sen”, which means war or battle, was third amid the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.