I turned on the TV for the first time since moving in. There was a news program playing that showed the kanji of the year for 2009 was voted to be 新 (new), as in オバマ新大統領 (new President Obama) and 鳩山新政権 (Prime Minister Hatoyama's new government) and 新型インフルエンザ (swine flu).
Kanji of the year, 2007-2010, from kanjiwiz.blogspot.com
The character is chosen by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society through a national ballot and selected to represent the events of that year. The selected kanji is announced in a ceremony on December 12 (Kanji Day) at Kiyomizu Temple.
On an unrelated news program, I also learned that when referring to the sexes 性別 of animals on TV we use the animal specific words osu 雄 male and mesu 雌 female.
