The reading for this kanji (勝負) is “shoubu.” It normally means “victory or defeat; match; contest; game; bout; challenge.”

I recently heard this word for the first time on a comedy TV show, and asked Yuko what kind of underwear everyone was laughing about when the male comedian said his wife never wears “shoubu” panties anymore.

I learned that when shoubu is used as an adjective to describe panties, as in “shoubu pantsu” / “勝負パンツ”, it describes “date night panties”- you know, sexy underwear used to catch a man.

I guess some jokes are the same no matter what language you speak. 😉