Kirk here reporting that “Murakami-sama” (村神様; “The Murakami God”) has been chosen as the “new word of the year” for 2022. This, of course, refers to Kumamoto’s hometown-boy-done-good, Munetaka MURAKAMI (profession baseball player). Note that Mr. Murakami write’s his name “村上” (second character means “up”) but that 村神様 (Murakami-sama) is written with the character 神, which means “god.” According to an explanation I read on the web, fans started to refer to him as “村上様” a couple of years ago as a term of endearment mixed with respect for his abilities. That morphed to “村神様” as the extent of his powers began to make fans believe that he was no mere mortal.