Are there any mnemonics or similar aids you guys have to help remember that 近日 means “coming days” (future) while 近年 means “recent years” (past)?
Thank you!
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The WK mnemonic only really invokes the spatial sense of the word, but the temporal sense is just as important. I find the difference easier to remember when you think about the time scale.
近日 - Days that are near in an abstract sense but there’s a nuance there that the coming days are closer than the preceding days, like the future is coming at you but the past is fading away.
近年 - Years that are near. The coming years and the preceding years are on a timescale that it’s hard to envision as moving at all in your day-to-day life. The years surrounding you have more immediacy then the coming year, which feels farther away.
Hope that helped.
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Yes, that helped a lot. Thank you both 
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Just chiming in to say I was about to pull my hair out in frustration over the way some some jukugo that share kanji present different scales/directions of time. This answer will definitely help me keep these two straight — thank you!
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