Numbers in Japanese: The Complete Guide (1–10, 1–100, Kanji & Counting Words)

If you’ve just started learning Japanese, numbers are one of the first things you tackle – and one of the first things that genuinely confuse people. Japanese doesn’t have one number system. It has two. And depending on what you’re counting, you use different words for the same number.

I’ve been through this myself when learning other languages from scratch, and I know how quickly a topic like this can feel overwhelming if it’s not explained in a clear, logical order. So let’s go step by step – starting with the basics, then building up to everything you actually need.

Why Japanese Numbers Are Different From What You Expect

Most European languages have one number system. Japanese has two – and both are in active use today. Once you understand why they exist, the whole system clicks into place much faster.

The Sino-Japanese system (also called on’yomi readings) came to Japan from China and is by far the most commonly used today. You’ll hear it in prices, dates, times, phone numbers, and general counting. The numbers ichi, ni, san, shi, go… belong to this system.

The Native Japanese system (kun’yomi readings) is older and only goes up to ten in everyday use. Beyond ten, it’s rarely used. You’ll mostly encounter it with certain counting words (more on those below) and in specific traditional contexts. The words hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu… belong to this system.

In practice, the Sino-Japanese system is what you need to learn first and use most. The native system matters mainly for 1–10 when combined with general-purpose counters.

Japanese Numbers 1–10: The Foundation

The table in the quick-answer box above gives you the core. A few things worth knowing before you memorise them:

4 has two readings: shi and yon. Shi sounds identical to the word for death (死) in Japanese, which is why many Japanese people avoid it in certain contexts. You’ll typically hear yon in everyday counting, prices, and phone numbers. Shi appears more in compound words (like April = shigatsu).

7 has two readings: shichi and nana. Similarly, shichi can sound like other words, so nana is often preferred to avoid confusion – especially on the phone or in loud environments.

9 has two readings: ku and kyuu. Ku sounds like the word for suffering (苦), so kyuu is often preferred in everyday speech. You’ll hear both.

When I first started working with the Sino-Japanese number system, those double readings for 4, 7, and 9 tripped me up consistently. The trick is to default to yon, nana, and kyuu in general counting – and learn the exceptions as you go.

Japanese Numbers 1–20

Once you know 1–10, building up to 20 is straightforward. Japanese uses a logical, additive system: 11 is simply “ten-one” (juu-ichi), 12 is “ten-two” (juu-ni), and so on.

Number	Kanji	Romaji	Logic
11	十一	juu-ichi	10 + 1
12	十二	juu-ni	10 + 2
13	十三	juu-san	10 + 3
14	十四	juu-yon	10 + 4
15	十五	juu-go	10 + 5
16	十六	juu-roku	10 + 6
17	十七	juu-nana	10 + 7
18	十八	juu-hachi	10 + 8
19	十九	juu-kyuu	10 + 9
20	二十	ni-juu	2 × 10

Notice how 20 works: ni (2) + juu (10) = ni-juu. This pattern continues all the way to 99. 30 is san-juu, 40 is yon-juu, 50 is go-juu, and so on.

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Japanese Numbers 1–100: The Full Table

Here’s where the system really proves its elegance. Once you know the tens, everything else follows the same pattern. 21 is ni-juu-ichi, 45 is yon-juu-go, 99 is kyuu-juu-kyuu. No exceptions.

Number	Kanji	Romaji	Number	Kanji	Romaji
10	十	juu	60	六十	roku-juu
20	二十	ni-juu	70	七十	nana-juu
30	三十	san-juu	80	八十	hachi-juu
40	四十	yon-juu	90	九十	kyuu-juu
50	五十	go-juu	100	百	hyaku

A note on 100: it’s not ichi-hyaku, just hyaku. Similarly, 1,000 is sen, not ichi-sen. Japanese drops the leading “one” for the round numbers 100 and 1,000.

Numbers Beyond 100: Thousands, Ten-Thousands and More

This is where Japanese diverges most noticeably from English. While English groups numbers in thousands (1,000 / 1,000,000), Japanese groups them in units of ten-thousand (万, man). This single difference trips up a lot of learners when dealing with prices in Japan.

Number	Kanji	Romaji	Note
100	百	hyaku	not ichi-hyaku
200	二百	ni-hyaku
300	三百	san-byaku	sound change: byaku
600	六百	roppyaku	sound change: roppyaku
800	八百	happyaku	sound change: happyaku
1,000	千	sen	not ichi-sen
3,000	三千	san-zen	sound change: zen
8,000	八千	hassen	sound change: hassen
10,000	一万	ichi-man	new unit: man
100,000	十万	juu-man	10 × 10,000
1,000,000	百万	hyaku-man	100 × 10,000
100,000,000	一億	ichi-oku	new unit: oku

The sound changes (byaku, roppyaku, hassen…) are examples of rendaku – a phonetic phenomenon where sounds change when words are combined. You don’t need to memorise all of them immediately, but be aware they exist so you’re not caught off guard.

The 万 (man) unit is practically important. A ¥50,000 price tag isn’t “fifty-thousand yen” in Japanese thinking – it’s “go-man yen” (5 × 10,000). Once you internalise that, reading prices in Japan becomes much more intuitive.

Japanese Numbers in Hiragana

In everyday Japanese writing, numbers are usually written either as Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…) or in kanji (一, 二, 三…). Hiragana is used for number words mainly in children’s books, furigana (pronunciation guides above kanji), or when writing out the spoken form explicitly.

That said, knowing the hiragana readings is essential for pronunciation and listening comprehension – and it’s the form you’ll use when speaking.

Number	Hiragana	Romaji
1	いち	ichi
2	に	ni
3	さん	san
4	し / よん	shi / yon
5	ご	go
6	ろく	roku
7	しち / なな	shichi / nana
8	はち	hachi
9	く / きゅう	ku / kyuu
10	じゅう	juu
100	ひゃく	hyaku
1,000	せん	sen
10,000	いちまん	ichi-man

Japanese Counting Words (Counters): What They Are and Why They Matter

This is the part that surprises most learners. In Japanese, you generally can’t just say “three books” or “five cats” using a bare number. You need a counter word that depends on the type or shape of the object you’re counting. This is similar to how English says “three sheets of paper” or “two glasses of water” – except in Japanese, this system applies to almost everything.

The good news: you don’t need to know all counters to function. A small set covers the vast majority of everyday situations.

Counter	Kanji	Used for	Example
-hon / -bon / -pon	本	Long thin objects (pens, bottles, umbrellas)	ip-pon (1), ni-hon (2), san-bon (3)
-mai	枚	Flat thin objects (paper, tickets, plates)	ichi-mai (1), ni-mai (2)
-hiki / -biki / -piki	匹	Small animals (cats, fish, insects)	ip-piki (1), ni-hiki (2)
-tou	頭	Large animals (horses, cows, elephants)	ichi-tou (1), ni-tou (2)
-nin	人	People	hitori (1), futari (2), san-nin (3)
-dai	台	Machines, vehicles	ichi-dai (1), ni-dai (2)
-ko	個	Small round objects (apples, eggs)	ik-ko (1), ni-ko (2)
-satsu	冊	Bound books, magazines	is-satsu (1), ni-satsu (2)
-tsu (native)	つ	General-purpose (when unsure)	hitotsu (1), futatsu (2), mittsu (3)

Notice -nin for people: 1 person is hitori and 2 people is futari – these use the native Japanese system, not the Sino-Japanese one. From 3 onwards it’s san-nin, yon-nin, etc.

The general-purpose counter (-tsu) is your safe fallback. If you don’t know the correct counter for something, use -tsu for objects 1–9 and you’ll be understood in most situations. It might sound informal or slightly awkward, but it won’t cause confusion.

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The Unlucky Numbers 4 and 9 in Japanese Culture

If you’ve ever noticed that some Japanese buildings skip floor 4 – or that hospital rooms sometimes jump from 3 to 5 – you’ve encountered tetraphobia. The number 4 (shi) is avoided in many contexts because it’s homophonous with the word for death (死, shi). Similarly, 9 (ku) sounds like the word for suffering or pain (苦, ku).

In practice, this affects:

• Building floor numbering (floors 4, 9, 13, 14 sometimes skipped)
• Hospital room and ward numbering
• Gift-giving (sets of 4 are considered bad luck)
• Phone number preferences (some people avoid numbers with 4 or 9)

This is worth knowing not just culturally, but practically – it explains why Japanese speakers default to yon and kyuu rather than shi and ku in everyday counting. The alternative readings exist partly to distance numbers from their unlucky homophones.

As a contrast: 8 (hachi) is considered lucky because the kanji 八 widens at the bottom, symbolising growing prosperity. You’ll notice 8s appearing frequently in prices, phone numbers, and business names.

Japanese Phone Numbers: How to Read and Say Them

Japanese phone numbers follow a specific format: area code – local exchange – subscriber number. Mobile numbers typically start with 070, 080, or 090. Landlines start with the area code for the city (Tokyo is 03, Osaka is 06).

When reading phone numbers aloud in Japanese, each digit is read individually using the Sino-Japanese system. The hyphen is expressed as no (の).

Example: 03-1234-5678 is read as:

zero-san no ichi-ni-san-yon no go-roku-nana-hachi

Zero is zero (ゼロ) or rei (れい / 零) – the loanword zero is more common in everyday speech, including phone numbers.

One practical note: when giving your number to someone in Japan, it’s common to say each digit slowly and clearly, and to use nana for 7 (not shichi) to avoid confusion – especially in noisy environments.

Ordinal Numbers in Japanese (First, Second, Third…)

Ordinal numbers are formed by adding ban-me (番目) after the Sino-Japanese number. This works for almost all ordinal contexts.

Ordinal	Japanese	Hiragana
1st	一番目 / 第一	いちばんめ / だいいち
2nd	二番目 / 第二	にばんめ / だいに
3rd	三番目 / 第三	さんばんめ / だいさん
4th	四番目 / 第四	よんばんめ / だいし
5th	五番目 / 第五	ごばんめ / だいご

第 (dai) is a more formal prefix for ordinals, often seen in ranked lists, chapter titles (第一章 = Chapter 1), or formal speech. In everyday conversation, -ban-me is perfectly natural.

Common Mistakes When Learning Numbers in Japanese

Based on what trips up learners most consistently, here are the pitfalls worth knowing in advance:

Using ichi-hyaku instead of hyaku. 100 is just hyaku, 1,000 is just sen. The “one” is dropped for these round numbers. From 2,000 onwards (ni-sen, san-zen…) the number comes back.

Confusing man (万) with million. 10,000 is ichi-man. One million is hyaku-man (100 × 10,000). This is the biggest source of confusion when dealing with prices in Japan – a ¥200,000 price is ni-juu-man, not “two-hundred-thousand” broken into the same units as English.

Always using shi for 4 and ku for 9. These are technically correct, but in everyday counting, yon and kyuu are strongly preferred. Using shi and ku indiscriminately can sound slightly unnatural or even cause superstitious discomfort.

Forgetting that counters change pronunciation. The counter 本 (-hon) becomes -bon after 3 (san-bon) and -pon after 1 and 6, 8 (ip-pon, rop-pon, hap-pon). These changes follow phonetic patterns that become intuitive with exposure.

I find it helps to learn the sound changes in context – through actual sentences and examples – rather than trying to memorise all the rules upfront. That’s exactly the kind of approach that worked for me across the five languages I’ve learned.

The Native Japanese Number System: 1–10

For completeness, here’s the native Japanese counting system that predates Chinese influence. You’ll mainly encounter these with the general-purpose counter -tsu and in specific traditional contexts.

Number	Native Japanese	Kanji
1	hitotsu	一つ
2	futatsu	二つ
3	mittsu	三つ
4	yottsu	四つ
5	itsutsu	五つ
6	muttsu	六つ
7	nanatsu	七つ
8	yattsu	八つ
9	kokonotsu	九つ
10	too	十

Beyond 10, the native system doesn’t continue in everyday use. Stick to Sino-Japanese (ichi, ni, san…) for anything above 10.

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How to Practise Japanese Numbers Effectively

Knowing the tables is one thing. Actually using numbers automatically when listening or speaking is another. A few approaches that genuinely work:

Count things around you in Japanese. Every time you pick up objects, walk up stairs, or count items at the supermarket, do it in Japanese. Attaching numbers to real-world actions builds retrieval speed faster than flashcards alone.

Practise with prices. Japanese prices in yen are an excellent workout because the numbers are large and the 万 (man) unit forces you to think differently. Look up prices of things online in Japanese and try reading them aloud.

Use spaced repetition for counters. The counters (-hon, -mai, -hiki…) are best learned through example sentences, not abstract lists. A structured course with spaced repetition handles this more efficiently than self-made flashcard decks.

If you want a structured way to embed all of this – not just numbers, but the vocabulary that surrounds them – the 17-Minute-Languages Japanese course uses a method I’ve seen work consistently across multiple languages. The vocabulary is presented in context, with built-in repetition, and the learning sessions are short enough to do daily without burning out.

→ More about learning Japanese: How to learn Japanese

→ Useful vocabulary for everyday situations: Common Japanese phrases

For a research-backed overview of how the Japanese language is structured and taught, the Japan Foundation’s language education resources are worth bookmarking.

Summary: What You Need to Know About Numbers in Japanese

Japanese has two number systems: Sino-Japanese (the main system, used for almost everything) and native Japanese (used mainly for 1–10 with the general counter -tsu). The Sino-Japanese system is logical and consistent from 1 to billions – once you know the base numbers and units, the rest follows automatically.

The most important things to remember: numbers 4 and 9 have two readings each (prefer yon and kyuu in everyday speech), large numbers group around 万 (man = 10,000) rather than thousands, and counters are words that attach to numbers depending on what you’re counting. Start with -tsu as your fallback counter, learn the most common ones gradually, and build from there.

The structure is learnable. It’s just different from what you’re used to.