Japan has chosen the symbol meaning "disaster" to define the year 2018.

日本近日公布，2018年度汉字是的“灾”。

In the annual vote, the public nominated this kanji character after experiencing a number of natural disasters.

“灾”字在今年的公众年度投票中胜出。2018年，日本经历了数次自然灾害。

Japan has suffered flooding, typhoons, earthquakes and heatwaves in 2018, leading the economy to shrink.

2018年，日本遭遇了洪水、台风、地震和热浪的袭击，导致经济下滑。

It fell by 1.2% in the third quarter thanks to the damage caused by the events.

由于这些灾害造成的损失，日本经济今年第三季度下滑了1.2%。

This year's symbol - pronounced like the English word "sigh" - was chosen by just fewer than 21,000 people.

近2.1万人投票选择了“灾”作为今年的年度汉字。在日语中，“灾”的发音类似于英文单词sigh。

The Kyoto-based Kanji Aptitude¹ Testing Foundation has run the competition every year since 1995.

自1995年以来，位于东京的日本汉字能力检定协会每年都评选年度汉字。

"North" won in 2017, and "gold" in 2016 after the Rio Olympics.

2017年的年度汉字是“北”。2016年的年度汉字是“金”，里约奥运会在当年举行。

Flood waters swept across the country in July, killing² nearly 200 people and causing the evacuation of close to nine million across 23 prefectures

今年7月，日本各地遭遇洪水袭击，导致近200人丧生，23个县的近900万人疏散。

The same month at least 65 people died in a heatwave that saw more than 22,000 people hospitalized

同样是在7月，至少65人死于热浪，超过2.2万人因此住院。

Typhoon Jebi lashed³ western Japan with winds of up to 172km/h - the strongest typhoon to hit the country in 25 years

台风飞燕横扫日本西部，时速高达172公里，是近25年来日本遭遇的最强台风。

The northern island of Hokkaido was hit with a magnitude 6.7 earthquake, which triggered landslides⁴

日本北部北海道今年还发生里氏6.7级地震，引发山体滑坡。