In Japan chose the symbol of the year
TOKYO, 12 Dec — RIA Novosti. Each year the Japanese people choose the main character — a symbol of the year, and this time it was a sign meaning “North”.
Traditionally, the symbol was put on the canvas paper with brush and ink the Abbot of the Buddhist temple “kiyomizudera” in Kyoto, the live broadcast of this event was conducted by TV channel NHK.
The choice of the character “North” is largely due to the missile tests, which in the past year were held in North Korea, causing concern in Japan.
Characters-the characters leaving years out in Japan since 1995.
In Japan, the letter used Chinese characters borrowed in a time when the Japanese still did not have a written language. Also, the kanji came from China in his time in Korea and Vietnam, where in the end they were rejected.
Japan in this respect, preserves the traditions and currently, along with Chinese characters in the country there are signs of two phonetic alphabets, Japanese syllabic letters, formed from cuts of the same Chinese characters.
Your character of the year chosen in China.