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The story
Rakugo performer Tatsukawa Shiraku shared his opinion on X after the 2026 Buzzword of the Year Award nominees were announced. He declared it “a narrow-minded award chosen by just a handful of judges” and called for the introduction of a public vote — a report that sparked a split reaction on 5ch. The discussion ranged widely: worries that a public vote would let organized fan-voting blocs or internet memes dominate the rankings, nostalgic looks back at past nominees, and grumbling that baseball-related terms never get picked.
Tatsukawa Shiraku on the Buzzword of the Year Award: “Far too narrow-minded an award” — a public vote is “absolutely essential”
Rakugo performer Tatsukawa Shiraku (63) posted on his X account on the 7th, sharing his views on the “2026 T&D Insurance Group Buzzword of the Year Award,” whose nominees had been announced on the 5th.
Shiraku opened with, “Once again this year, without learning a thing, the Buzzword of the Year nominees have been announced,” before bluntly declaring, “This award is decided by just a handful of judges. No disrespect to them, but it’s an award with far too narrow a perspective.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Just make it a fully public vote already.
They're even bigger in China and Taiwan than in Japan, if anything.
It'd win by an overwhelming landslide, so a public vote is never gonna happen.
A public-vote system just isn't workable.
It's not even decided by year's end — offers go out to the ceremony presenters early, and it's basically locked in by autumn.
Once online keyword-search rankings became a thing, they started announcing it earlier and earlier so it wouldn't get directly compared to those.
Nominees: "local mascot characters," "Abenomics," "PM2.5," "black companies" (exploitative employers)
This year's crop is just weak, that's all.
Huh, surprisingly little favoritism in how it's decided. You'd think there'd be some unspoken rule that Abenomics has to take the top prize.
That lineup's insanely strong lol. In a normal year, any of those 4 nominees could've won the grand prize and nobody would've blinked.
Still, it's nice how a throwaway word like that can jog your memory. "2013" brings back Hayashi's breakout year, the hit dramas Amachan and Hanzawa Naoki, and Tokyo winning the Olympic bid. Hope this year's pick is one that instantly brings 2026 to mind when we look back on it.
You can't pick something that doesn't exist.
If they just went with "new words" instead, that would make sense.
Sure, you could try to sample evenly across genders and generations,
but you'd still end up with an even bigger "this isn't it" feeling than now.
"Triple Crown" — I was thinking, how many years ago was that… then realized someone actually won it this year.
And it's a player I've never even heard of.
Funnier than Sanpei, less funny than Koraku.
That's the kind of rakugo heavyweight he is.
Like "Triple Three" or "Murakami-sama" (lol) (a mock-deifying nickname for a baseball star).
Nah, this guy's not an elder statesman, he's mid-tier.
The real heavyweights in rakugo are guys like Kikuou, Koyuza, Koraku, and Shinosuke.
Out of that bunch, I'd guess "extreme heat day" maybe?
It'd end up being "INMU KING."
Ugh, yeah, total chaos.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Buzzword of the Year Award, selected as part of the annual reference book “Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki” (Basic Knowledge of Contemporary Terms), is hosted by Jiyu Kokumin Sha, with a handful of judges picking the nominees and grand-prize winner each year. The 2026 nominees were announced on November 5, and Shiraku’s post came two days later. Where the thread split was over how workable a public vote would actually be: many worried that organized voting blocs or internet memes would dominate the rankings, and the prevailing view was that a full switch to public voting would be difficult. At the same time, some agreed with the underlying complaint that too few judges make the call. One point easy for readers to miss: the award was never built to measure “popularity” against any objective metric in the first place — it’s always come down to the judges’ subjective impressions, so a public vote wouldn’t necessarily make it any fairer.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “[Entertainment] Tatsukawa Shiraku on the Buzzword of the Year Award: “Far too narrow-minded an award” — a public vote is “absolutely essential”.”
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