The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation said it received a total of 111,208 entries for its poll to select the single best kanji reflecting society in 2008.

Of the total, 6,031, or 5.4 percent, picked "hen," followed by "kin" (gold) and "raku" (fall). "Kin" was apparently chosen because of gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, while "raku" was chosen to reflect falling stock prices.

"Hen" was chosen to symbolize successive changes of power in Japan from 2007 to 2008, the victory of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who called for change during his presidential campaign, and the deterioration in the global financial and economic landscape, the association said.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda stepped down in September after serving in the post for only one year. The previous year, Fukuda's predecessor Shinzo Abe also resigned after remaining in power for one year.

The kanji association announced the poll results during an annual event at Kiyomizu-dera temple in Japan's ancient capital.

The foundation has been conducting the poll on the year's kanji -- Chinese characters used in Japanese writing -- each year since 1995.