May 9: Son Goku Day

Manuel Van den Broucke, sports, society and politics correspondent, May 9, 2025

Origin of Goku Day

Goku Day was born from a joint initiative by Toei Company and publisher Shueisha, validated on May 9, 2015 by the Japan Anniversary Association, the body responsible for registering official commemorations in Japan. The choice of May 9 relies on goroawase, a numeric wordplay technique specific to Japanese culture. Here, "5" is read as go (ご) and "9" as ku (く), phonetically forming "Gokū". The official announcement took place during a screening of the film Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' at the Wald 9 cinema in Shinjuku, in the presence of Masako Nozawa.

Who Is Goku?

Son Goku, born Kakarot, belongs to the fictional Saiyan race, a warrior people from planet Vegeta, and has a monkey tail that lets him transform into an Oozaru (giant ape) under a full moon. Taken in as a baby on Earth by the old hermit Son Gohan, he suffers a head injury that erases his conquering instinct and shapes his kind-hearted personality. His signature technique, the Kamehameha, involves concentrating his ki - inner vital energy - in his palms before releasing a beam of light. Goku goes on to master successive transformations: Super Saiyan (golden hair, power multiplied by 50), Super Saiyan Blue, and Ultra Instinct, a state in which the body reacts without conscious input, a concept close to the mushin of Japanese martial arts. His physical strength exceeds human limits: he can lift more than 40,000 tons in Dragon Ball Super and move at hypersonic speeds.

History of Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball is a manga created by Akira Toriyama, first published in Japan in the weekly magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. The series began on December 3, 1984 and ended on June 5, 1995, totaling 519 chapters compiled into 42 bound volumes, called tankōbon. The story is split into two main parts. The first follows the adventures of Son Goku as a child in his quest for the Dragon Balls, seven magic orbs that, once gathered, summon a dragon capable of granting any wish. The second part, darker and more science-fiction oriented, begins with the appearance of the Saiyans, the warrior race Goku discovers he belongs to. The Frieza, Cell, and Boo arcs follow, each introducing antagonists with immense power and rising stakes, ranging from protecting Earth to the survival of the universe.