Actually, the Kanji IS a word by itself...in Chinese.
But yea, it still means victory and when combined with other characters, alters the meaning slightly. Either way, the guy was telling the truth when he said it was chinese. The Japanese borrow and modify Chinese characters to fit their language better. That's why I love them!!! So I'm learning both and I found out the hard way the vast difference in the meanings of some of the characters between Chinese and Japanese.
