I saw it on Japanese TV on a show called HIRUOBI—a variety show. We all watch it during lunch before playing Mario Kart 7 or Bomberman DS.
The first time I saw it I was writing all the Kanji I know just from memory and I glanced at the screen for inspiration. I saw the above Kanji by chance and remembered that I knew 前 from memory and jotted it down. But I wondered why it had 3 marks on top, so I watched the screen longer and saw, in the same font, 前. It was visibly different from the Kanji above, so it isn’t a matter of fonts. Sometimes 前 looks similar to the above in some fonts, but this was the same font and they were visibly different.
So I asked my Japanese teacher and she replied that no such Kanji exists. Her dictionary confirmed her story and I decided to consider that I had made a mistake.
Until I saw the same Kanji one week later plastered over the entire screen on the same show, in a very very plain font that made it clear it was indeed not 前.
I drew it for coworkers and none recognized it.
My teacher did some more research and found this:
http://kanji.sljfaq.org/mrj.html6 光 当 7 肖 労 8 学 尚 畄
鼡 9 恍 栄 洸 削 単 10 珱 胱
悩 哨 宵 党 屑 峭 悄 挙 晃 晄
档 桜 消 11 巣 梢 淌 猟 脳 蛍
逍 堂 常 12 絖 覚 営 掌 弾 敞
敝 棠 硝 稍 13 溢 剿 勦 當 甞
幌 戦 滉 禅 蛸 誉 14 嫦 瑣 蝋
褝 誚 趙 隠 嘗 厰 裳 15 蝉 銷
霄 輝 賞 幤 廠 弊 撹 樔 箪 蔽
16 瞠 暼 獣 靜 鞘 鴬 17 償 瞥
螳 蟐 厳 18 鮹 斃 礑 襠 鎖 19
蟷 騨 20 巌 耀 黨 21 鐺 欅 22
儻 襷 25 鼈
Originally her dictionary confirmed that there is no such thing as a flat bar with 3 strokes above it in Japanese, but something similar does exist in Chinese.
挙 is one example. But the strokes are not a match. There it is:
\\ /
But what I saw was very clearly:
\ //
I am now watching TV and everything else I can see to find this Kanji again and either take a picture or show my coworkers while it is still on the screen.
But if anyone can solve this mystery here, you are probably amazing.
L. Spiro