Goku Day in Japan

May 9, 2015 officially began celebrating Goku Day, the well-known protagonist of the Dragon Pearl universe created by Akira Toriyama (the boy with the monkey tail). Although it is true that several fans around the world had already been celebrating it on social networks some time before, it was on that date when the Japan Anniversary Association officially recognized it. It did so, of course, after receiving several requests from both the public and TOEI Animation, the animation studio responsible for the production of Dragon Ball anime.

However, you can't just ask for a day like this for any reason. There has to be, at least, some symbolic element that determines that, indeed, that day has something special to commemorate a series, a character. In the case of Goku Day, luckily, there is. And the truth is that it is quite simple, all things considered.

Roughly speaking, the Japanese read the calendar in reverse to us Westerners. That is, they put the month first and then the day. So, for them, May 9 is written as 5/9. And what does this have to do with Goku Day? Well, it is related to the pronunciation of the numbers 5 and 9.

The Kanji for both numbers - it's a bit more complex than this, but we explain it this way to simplify the narrative - are pronounced much like "Go" and "Ku", respectively. Consequently, the reason Goku Day is celebrated on 5/9 is because of one of the ways we can phonetically intone both numbers.

And as a curiosity, it is also Piccolo Day, although this depends on the country. Some celebrate it on May 9 because it was the date when King Piccolo proclaimed his sovereignty on Earth. In other countries, because of the dubbing, this date is May 13, creating a certain conflict in its celebration.