The year 2018 is to an end. For some people it a great year, and for other people it wasn't so great. In Japan, an organization a survey to people for the word they best described 2018. The winner of this survey was the word "disaster". The kanji (Chinese character) that Japanese people means "disaster or misfortune". The organization people chose the kanji for disaster because of the many natural disasters to Japan in 2018. Japan was hit by deadly typhoons, earthquakes, heavy rains that widespread destruction, and a killer heatwave. Hundreds of people their lives in these disasters and many roads and homes were destroyed.
The organization is the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. It has a "word of the year" survey annually since 1995. This year, it suggestions from 193,214 people. The second most popular kanji the character for "peace". Last year, "north" was the winner. This was because of increasing tensions over North Korea's nuclear tests. The rest of the world was also by devastating natural disasters, including wildfires, hurricanes and tsunami. Wars also across the world, especially in Syria and Yemen. There was also a lot of suffering because of immigration - people to move to other countries to a new life. People the next kanji will "happiness".
