Overview
- The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation announced the selection at Kyoto’s Kiyomizudera temple after its annual nationwide poll.
- “Kuma” received 23,346 votes, or 12.3% of ballots cast, to lead this year’s results.
- Voters pointed to unprecedented bear sightings and attacks that caused injuries and deaths, forced school closures and event cancellations, and damaged rural crops.
- Organisers said heightened attention to giant pandas also influenced sentiment, with four animals returned to China from Wakayama in 2025 and the last two at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo scheduled to leave in 2026.
- Runner-up “kome/bei” (rice) earned 23,166 votes, reflecting rising rice prices, emergency stockpile releases and food-security worries, while third-place “kō/takai” signaled soaring prices and record heat and also matches the first character of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s surname.