Numbers in Japanese - Complete Guide

Ever wondered how the numbers are in Japanese or Chinese? How do Japanese people usually count or write numbers? In this article, we will make a complete guide to numbers in Japanese so that you can count or understand any number you see ahead.

To facilitate the navigation of this article about numbers in Japanese, we will leave a summary below:

Japanese numbers and their readings and ideograms

In the table below we can see the numbers in Japanese and their readings:

Número	Kanji	Chinese origin	Japanese origin
0	零 / 〇	zero - rei - maru
1	一	ichi	hito(tsu)
2	二	no	futa (tsu)
3	三	san	mi (tsu)
4	四	shi	yo / yo(tsu)
5	五	go	itsu (tsu)
6	六	roku	mu (tsu)
7	七	shichi	nana(tsu)
8	八	hachi	ya (tsu)
9	九	ku, kyu	koonotsu
10	十	ju, jyu	tō
11	十一	ju-ichi
12	十二	ju-ni
13	十三	ju-san
20	二十	ni-ju
25	二十五	ni-ju-go
100	百	hyaku
1000	千	sen
10.000	一万	ichi-man
50.000	五万	go-man
1.000.000	百万	hyaku-man
100.000.000	一億	ichi-oku (Or just oku)
1.000.000.000.000	一兆	ichi-chō (Trillion)

The clusters of numbers in the west tend to be millions (1 million) while in Japanese and Chinese they tend to be in myriads (10,000). &Nbsp; Apparently it's easy, but things get complicated when the numbers get bigger and we realize that 1,500,000 is just 150 万.

This may confuse your head, but we need to keep in mind that the character 万 represents the 4 digits of zero. Something similar happens with the other ideograms. So be careful not to get confused when mixing Roman numerals with numbers in ideograms. Below we will leave more examples of large numbers and mixed numbers.

Numbers	Japanese	Romaji
11,001	１万１,００１	ichimanissenichi
20.000	二万	niman
100.000	十万	juuman
10.000.000	一千万	issenman
1.000.000.000	十億	juuoku
10.000.000.000	百億	hyakuoku
100.000.000.000	一千億	issenoku
10.000.000.000.000	十兆	jucchou
11	十一	juu ichi
17	十七	seventeen, seventeen
151	百五十一	One hundred fifty-one
302	三百二	san-byaku ni / san-hyaku ni
469	四百六十九	yon-hyaku roku-juu kyuu
2025	二千二十五	ni-sen ni-juu go

If you wonder which numerals in myriads come after [兆] are the ideograms: 京, 垓, ?, 穣, 溝, 澗, 正, 載, 極;

Different ways to speak a Japanese number

Before you learn the numbers in japonês, you need to be aware that the Japanese ideograms originated from China. This means that the numbers in japanese have two readings, the Chinese (ON) and the Japanese (KUN). This results in not just one but different ways of speaking a single number or pronouncing a Kanji.

Of course, this should not be any hindrance; in reality, it is quite simple. The other pronunciations usually only appear when they are accompanied by a contador numérico. Each pronunciation is used in different situations. This even results in various trocadilhos envolvendo números do japonês.

Do not get too attached to the different readings that a single Japanese ideogram presents. If you are a novice in the Japanese language and are only interested in learning the numbers, we recommend using the readings of Chinese origin, except for 4 (yon) and 7 (nana) which is very common to use the Japanese reading, possibly because shi from the Chinese reading resembles [死] meaning death.

Note also that in the Chinese readings I placed the tsu [つ] in parentheses. This tsu is one of the most common counters used in the Japanese language, used to count objects. It is also common to use the Japanese reading when we are talking about people like "two people, together" futari [二人].

Indicators - Counters in Japanese

In Japanese we use suffixes or prefixes to count and indicate things in the Japanese language. When we speak for example the number of people, number of days, number of years, numbers of cars or numbers of other objects we must use an ideogram that follows the number. Below we leave a small list of numerical counters:

Human	NIN	人	Numeric counter of people and human beings.
Cheered up	HIKIPIKIBIKI	匹	Counter of small animals, such as fish, cat, mouse, etc.
General	TSU	つ	With tsu you can count most things and objects not corresponding to other categories.
Inanimate	KO	個	For   lifeless objects, small or compact, generally rounded. We can count   apples, oranges, lemons, stones, croquettes and the like.
Big, electric goals	DAI	台	For large objects such as cars, wardrobes, cupboards, it includes counting all types of household appliances such as refrigerators, computers and telephones, etc.
Fine Objects	HONPONBON	本	Widely used to count thin and elongated objects such as pencils, pens, trees, etc. The most curious thing about this counter was to realize that it was also used to count video tapes and telephone calls.
Printed material	SATSU	冊	It is a counter used for practically all types of printed material such as books, magazines, pamphlets, handouts, etc.
Fine Objects	Mai	枚	For the Japanese, fine objects are things like shirts, sheets of paper, plates, cookies, blankets

To see other counters, read our article on counting indicators in Japanese.

Japanese Numbers - Ordinals

• 第一　DAI ICHI - 1st, first;
• 第二　DAI NI - 2º, segundo;
• 第三　DAI SAN - 3rd, third;
• 第四　DAI YON - 4th, fourth;
• 第五　DAI GO - 5th, fifth;
• 第六　DAI ROKU - 6th, sixth;
• 第七　DAI SHICHI -7th, seventh;
• 第八　DAI HACHI - 8th, eighth (hachi ban 八番);
• 第九　DAI KYŪ - 9º, nono;
• 第十　DAI JŪ - 10th, tenth;

Besides the prefix DAI, the suffix BAN can be used as exemplified in the eighth [八番].

Japanese numbers - Multiplicatives

Double	ni-bai	二倍
Triple	san-bai	三倍
Quadruple	yon-bai	四倍
Twice bigger	ni-bai gata ookina	二倍方大きな
Three times smaller	san-bai gata   chiisana	三倍方小さな
A couple	itsui	一対
Two Pairs	nitsui	二対

Some things in this article are a bit complex and are for people who already have a certain level in the Japanese language, but I hope you understand the basics of Japanese numbers. Finally, we recommend reading also:

• Suugaku - What is Japanese math like?