Japanese Numbers: Kanji, Readings, and Counters

Have you ever wondered how numbers are written and read in Japanese? And how Japanese people usually count? This guide gives you the basics so you can understand the main readings, writing systems, and counting words.

For reference, here is a quick overview.

Japanese numbers and their readings

The table below shows the main numbers with their On and Kun readings:

0	零 / 〇	rei	maru
1	一	ichi	hito(tsu)
2	二	ni	futa(tsu)
3	三	san	mi(tsu)
4	四	shi	yon / 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 / kyū	kokono(tsu)
10	十	jū	too

In Japanese and Chinese, large numbers are usually grouped in blocks of four digits, or units of 10,000. That may feel unusual at first, but it explains why 1,500,000 is read as 150万 in Japanese.

The kanji 万 stands for 10,000. The larger units work in a similar way with characters like 億 and 兆.

10,000	一万	ichiman
100,000	十万	juuman
1,000,000	百万	hyakuman
100,000,000	一億	ichioku
1,000,000,000,000	一兆	icchou

If you are wondering which large-number units come after 兆, there are even bigger ones such as 京, 垓, 穣, 溝, 澗, 正, 載, and 極.

Different readings of a Japanese number

Before you learn Japanese numbers, you should know that Japanese number kanji originally came from China. That is why many numbers have two readings: the Chinese-style reading (On) and the Japanese reading (Kun). This gives you not just one, but several ways to say the same number or read a kanji.

That should not be too confusing at the beginning. In practice, the other readings usually appear when a number is combined with a counting indicator. That is also why Japanese numbers appear in so many goroawase wordplays.

Do not get too stuck on every possible reading. If you are just starting to learn Japanese numbers, the Chinese-origin readings are usually enough, except for 4 (yon) and 7 (nana), where the Japanese readings are very common.

I also put tsu [つ] in parentheses in the Kun readings because it appears in several counting systems. When talking about people, Japanese also uses the special form futari [二人].

Counting indicators in Japanese

In Japanese, you do not just attach a number to a noun and call it a day. In most cases you need a counter, depending on the object you are counting. Here are some of the most important ones:

People	nin	人	Counter for people and human beings.
Small animals	hiki / piki / biki	匹	Counter for small animals such as fish, cats, and mice.
General	tsu	つ	A general counter for many things and objects.
Small, compact objects	ko	個	For small, compact, inanimate objects.
Large objects / devices	dai	台	For cars, home appliances, machines, and similar things.
Long, thin objects	hon	本	For pens, bottles, trees, and similar long objects.
Printed material	satsu	冊	For books, notebooks, magazines, and similar material.
Flat objects	mai	枚	For shirts, sheets of paper, cards, plates, and other flat items.

If you want to see more counters, read our article about counting indicators in Japanese.

Japanese numbers - ordinals

• 第一　DAI ICHI - 1st, first;
• 第二　DAI NI - 2nd, second;
• 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;
• 第九　DAI KYŪ - 9th, ninth;
• 第十　DAI JŪ - 10th, tenth;

The prefix DAI can also be replaced with the suffix BAN, as shown in the eighth place example [八番].

Japanese numbers - multiplicatives

Double	ni-bai	二倍
Triple	san-bai	三倍
Quadruple	yon-bai	四倍
A pair	itsui	一対
Two pairs	nitsui	二対

Some parts of this article are a little more complex and are meant for readers who already know some Japanese, but I hope you now understand the basic structure of Japanese numbers. To finish, you may also want to read:

• Suugaku - What is Japanese mathematics like?