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Kanji for Year
The kanji most commonly used for "Year" are 年、歳.
年
Kanji that mean Year
年 is the year as a unit and as a counter. Dates take it (2026年), and so do spans of time (十年間, ten years). It also carries the sense of a person’s years, which is why it appears in 年齢 (age), 年上 (older than someone) and 少年 (a boy).
歳 is the year as something lived through. It is the counter that follows a number to give an age — 二十歳 is twenty years old — and it turns up in 歳末 (the year’s end) and お歳暮, the winter gift season. In handwriting and on forms 才 is commonly substituted for 歳 because it is far quicker to write, but that substitution works for ages only, not for 歳 elsewhere.
So 年 is the neutral word for a year, and 歳 is the year counted against a life.
Words using Year kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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今年
ことし
this year
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歳出
さいしゅつ
annual expenditure (of a state, organization, etc.)
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前年
ぜんねん
the preceding year; the previous year; last year
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歳入
さいにゅう
annual revenue (government); annual income (government); budget receipts
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年間
ねんかん
(period of) a year; during the era (of)
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歳月
さいげつ
time; years
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昨年
さくねん
last year
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歳暮
せいぼ
year-end gift; end of the year; year end
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来年
らいねん
next year
Before you use Year kanji
Neither character says much alone: 年 reads as a bare calendar word and 歳 reads as "years old", the way an age is written on a form. If you want a year to carry weight, a full word such as 歳月, the passage of years, reads far better than either character by itself.