By IANS,
Tokyo : “Nadeshiko Japan”, the nickname for Japan’s women’s soccer team which beat the US in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup final, has been named the “word of the year” for 2011.
The women’s team also became the first Asian team to win the tournament, Xinhua reported.
The list of the country’s top 10 words for 2011 was released Thursday. It included five words that were directly related to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that led to the nuclear crises at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
However, the jury said they did not want to choose too many “pessimistic” words as the summary of 2011.
They wanted people to remember the year as a memorable one, and believed that the next one would be better.
The jury said the excellent performance by the women’s team and their “historic” victory would brighten the Japanese people, who were still suffering from the pain of the March 11 disaster.