Japan picks 'disaster' as 2018 symbol

Japan on Wednesday picked the Chinese character "disaster" to symbolize 2018, a year that saw deadly floods, strong earthquakes and heavy storms hit the country.

Japanese television broadcast the annual event live when Seihan Mori, head monk of the Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto, wrote the character on traditional washi paper in dark ink.

"Many people experienced the threat of natural disasters such as earthquakes, heavy rain, typhoons and heat waves (in 2018)," the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, the event organizer, said in a news release.