Mariko Sato of the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, said in March 2011: “Explosions at the nuclear power plant have forced me to evacuate twice already. What’s going to happen in the days ahead?”
When it came to light in the summer of 2007 that pension records of as many as 50 million people had become untraceable due to clerical errors, anxious citizens formed long lines outside Social Insurance Agency (present-day Japan Pension Service) offices around the nation.
ukanmuri, the “roof” radical), 必 (
hitsu, certainty) and 山 (
yama, mountain). Which begs the question, why do these three parts come together to form a kanji that can mean both “secrecy” and “bunched together”?
To figure that out we’ll need to take a closer look at the character’s major parts and explore their origins before ultimately reaching two possible theories as to how the modern 密 came into existence.
Following 書き順 (
kakijun, stroke order), let’s look at ウ冠 first. This is the simplest of the components. Its name refers to the fact that it looks similar to the katakana ウ and is written on the top of the kanji much like where a 冠 (