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Most numbers have two readings, one derived from Chinese used for cardinal numbers (On reading) and a native Japanese reading (Kun reading) used somewhat less formally for numbers up to 10. In some cases (listed below) the Japanese reading is generally preferred for all uses. Archaic readings are marked with †.
* The special reading 〇 maru (which means "round" or "circle") is also found. It may be optionally used when reading individual digits of a number one after another, instead of as a full number. A popular example is the famous 109 store in Shibuya, Tokyo which is read as ichi-maru-kyū (Kanji: 一〇九). (It can also be read as 'ten-nine'—pronounced tō-kyū—which is a pun on the name of the Tokyu department store which owns the building.) This usage of maru for numerical 0 is similar to reading numeral 0 in English as oh. However, as a number, it is only written as 0 or rei (零). Additionally, two and five are pronounced with a long vowel in phone numbers (i.e. にい nī and ごお gō).
As noted above, yon (4) and nana (7) are preferred to shi and shichi. It is purported that this is because shi is also the reading of the word death (死), which makes it an unlucky reading (see tetraphobia); while shichi may sound too similar to ichi (1), shi or hachi (8). However, in quite a number of established words and phrases, shi and shichi are preferred; additionally, when counting (as in "ichi, ni, san, shi,..."), shi and shichi may be preferred.
The number 9 is also considered unlucky; when pronounced ku, it is a homophone for suffering (苦). The number 13 is sometimes considered unlucky, though this is a carryover from Western tradition. In contrast, 7 and sometimes 8 are considered lucky in Japanese.[2]
In modern Japanese, cardinal numbers except 4 and 7 are generally given the on readings. Alternate readings are used in month names, day-of-month names, and fixed phrases; for instance, April, July, and September are called shi-gatsu (4th month), shichi-gatsu (7th month), and ku-gatsu (9th month) respectively (for further detail see Japanese counter word#Exceptions). The on readings are also used when shouting out headcounts (e.g. ichi-ni-san-shi).
Larger numbers are made by combining these elements:
Tens from 20 to 90 are "(digit)-jū" as in 二十 (ni-jū) to 九十 (kyū-jū).
Hundreds from 200 to 900 are "(digit)-hyaku".
Thousands from 2000 to 9000 are "(digit)-sen".
Starting at 万 (10,000), numbers begin with 一 (ichi) if no digit would otherwise precede. That is, 100 is just 百 hyaku, and 1000 is just 千 sen, but 10,000 is 一万 ichiman, not just *man. (This differs from Chinese, where numbers begin with 一 if no digit would otherwise precede starting at 100.) And, if 千 sen directly precedes the name of powers of myriad, 一 ichi is normally attached before 千 sen, which yields 一千 issen. That is, 10,000,000 is normally read as 一千万 issenman. But if 千 sen does not directly precede the name of powers of myriad or if numbers are lower than 2,000, attaching 一 ichi is optional. That is, 15,000,000 is read as 千五百万 sengohyakuman or 一千五百万 issengohyakuman, and 1,500 as 千五百 sengohyaku or 一千五百 issengohyaku.
There are some phonetic modifications to larger numbers involving voicing or gemination of certain consonants, as typically occurs in Japanese (i.e. rendaku): e.g. roku "six" and hyaku "hundred" yield roppyaku "six hundred".
×
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
100
1000
100
hyaku, ippyaku
nihyaku
sanbyaku
yonhyaku
gohyaku
roppyaku
nanahyaku
happyaku
kyūhyaku
—
—
—
1,000
sen, issen
nisen
sanzen
yonsen
gosen
rokusen
nanasen
hassen
kyūsen
—
—
—
1012
itchō
nichō
sanchō
yonchō
gochō
rokuchō
nanachō
hatchō
kyūchō
jutchō*
hyakuchō
issenchō
1016
ikkei
nikei
sankei
yonkei
gokei
rokkei
nanakei
hakkei
kyūkei
jukkei*
hyakkei**
issenkei
* This also applies to multiples of 10. Change ending -jū to -jutchō or -jukkei. ** This also applies to multiples of 100. Change ending -ku to -kkei.
In large numbers, elements are combined from largest to smallest, and zeros are implied.
Distributive numbers are formed regularly from a cardinal number, a counter word, and the suffix -zutsu (ずつ), as in hitori-zutsu (一人ずつ, one person at a time, one person each).
Powers of 10
Large numbers
Following Chinese tradition, large numbers are created by grouping digits into myriads (every 10,000) rather than the Western thousands (1,000):
Variation is due to the Jinkōki (塵劫記), Japan's oldest mathematics text. The initial edition was published in 1627 and had many errors, most of which were fixed in the 1631 edition. In 1634, there was yet another edition which again changed a few values. The above variation is due to inconsistencies in the latter two editions. There are different characters for 1024 (of which 秭 is in Chinese today), and after 1048 they differ in whether they continue increasing by a factor of 104 or switch to 108. (If by a factor of 108, the intervening factors of 104 are produced with 万man. The current edition of the Jinkōki, the 11th, follows a factor of 104 throughout, though some people still use the values from the 8th edition even today.)
The first three numbers with multisyllabic names and variation in assigned values ultimately derive from India, though they did not have defined values there. 恒河沙gōgasha was originally used in Buddhist scripture for an indefinitely large quantity; it derives from the Sanskritगङ्गाgangā 'Ganges' (which conveniently includes the character 河ka 'river') and 沙sha 'sand', referring to the innumerable sands of the Ganges River. 阿僧祇asōgi, from Sanskrit असंख्येयasaṃkhyeya 'uncountable/innumerable', with the negative prefix 阿a, and 那由他nayuta is from Sanskrit नयुत/नयुतःnayuta(ḥ). After that, the numbers are Buddhist terms translated into or coined in Chinese and later assigned numerical values: 不可思議fukashigi 'unimaginable' and 無量大数muryōtaisū 'immeasurably large number'.
Examples: (spacing by groups of four digits is given only for clarity of explanation)
10000: 一万 (ichi-man)
9836703: 九百八十三万 六千七百三 (kyū-hyaku hachi-jū san man, roku-sen nana-hyaku san)
However, numbers written in Arabic numerals are separated by commas every three digits following English-speaking convention. If Arabic numbers and kanji are used in combination, Western orders of magnitude may be used for numbers smaller than 10,000 (e.g. 2,500万 for 25,000,000).
In Japanese, when long numbers are written out in kanji, zeros are omitted for all powers of ten. Hence 4002 is 四千二 (in contrast, Chinese requires the use of 零 wherever a zero appears, e.g. 四千零二 for 4002). However, when reading out a statement of accounts, for example, the skipped digit or digits are sometimes indicated by tobi (飛び) or tonde (飛んで): e.g. yon-sen tobi ni or yon-sen tonde ni instead of the normal yon-sen ni.
Decimal fractions
Japanese has two systems of numerals for decimal fractions. They are no longer in general use, but are still used in some instances such as batting and fielding averages of baseball players, winning percentages for sports teams, and in some idiomatic phrases such as 五分五分の勝負 (gobugobu no shōbu, 'fifty-fifty chance'), and when representing a rate or discount. The bu fractions are also used when talking about fevers—for example 九度二分 (kudonibu) for 9 and two parts—referring to the temperature 39.2°C.
This is the system used with the traditional Japanese units of measurement. Several of the names are used "as is" to represent a fraction of a sun.
The other system of representing these decimal fractions of rate or discount uses a system "shifted down" with a bu becoming a "one hundredth" and so on, and the unit for "tenth" becoming wari:
打率三割八分九厘 (daritsu san-wari hachi-bu kyū-rin): batting average .389
With the exception of wari, these are rarely seen in modern usage. Decimal fractions are typically written with either kanji numerals (vertically) or Arabic numerals (horizontally), preceded by a decimal point, and are read as successive digits, as in Western convention. Note that, in written form, they can be combined with either the traditional system of expressing numerals (42.195 kilometers: 四十二・一九五 キロメートル), in which powers of ten are written, or with the place value system, which uses zero (50.04 percent: 五〇・〇四 パーセント.) In both cases, however, the reading follows the traditional system (yon-jū ni-ten ichi-kyū go kiromētoru for 42.195 kilometers; go ju-tten rei-yon pāsento for 50.04 percent.)
As with Chinese numerals, there exists in Japanese a separate set of kanji for numerals called daiji (大字) used in legal and financial documents to prevent unscrupulous individuals from adding a stroke or two, turning a one into a two or a three. The formal numbers are identical to the Chinese formal numbers except for minor stroke variations. Today, the numbers for one, two, three, and ten are written only in their formal form in legal documents (the numbers 4 to 9 as well as 100, 1000 and 10000 are written identically to the common ones, cf. table below).[3] These numbers' common forms can be changed to a higher value by adding strokes (1 and 2 were explained above, while 3 can be changed to 5, and 10 to 1000). In some cases, the digit 1 is explicitly written like 壱百壱拾 for 110, as opposed to 百十 in common writing.
Formal numbers:
Number
Common
Formal
In use
Obsolete
1
一
壱
壹
2
二
弐
貳
3
三
参
參
4
四
四
肆
5
五
五
伍
6
六
六
陸
7
七
七
柒, 漆
8
八
八
捌
9
九
九
玖
10
十
拾
拾
100
百
百
佰
1000
千
千
阡, 仟
10000
万
万, 萬
萬
The four current banknotes of the Japanese yen, 1000-yen, 2000-yen, 5000-yen, and 10000-yen, have formal numbers 千, 弐千, 五千, and 壱万, respectively.
Old Japanese
Old Japanese shares some vocabulary with later periods, but there are also unique number terms over 10 which are not used any more, aside from being parts of specific lexemes.
Japanese uses separate systems for counting for oneself and for displaying numbers to others, which both proceed up to ten. For counting, one begins with the palm open, then counts up to five by curling up (folding down) the fingers, starting from the thumb – thus one has just the thumb down (and others extended), while four has only the little finger extended, and five has a fist. One then counts up to ten by proceeding in the reverse order, extending the fingers, starting at the little finger – thus six is the same as four, seven the same as three, and so forth, with ten ending with the palm open. While this introduces ambiguity, it is not used to present to others, so this is generally not a problem. When displaying for others, one starts with the hand closed, and extends fingers, starting with the index, going to the little finger, then ending with the thumb, as in the United States. For numbers above five, one uses an open hand (indicating five) and places the appropriate number of fingers from the other hand against the palm (palms facing each other) – so six has the index finger against the palm, and so forth.[4] To display ten, one presents both hands open and palm outwards.
Digits in written words
Since the adoption of Arabic numerals, numbers have become written in Arabic numerals more and more often. Counters and ordinal numbers are typically written in Arabic numbers, such as 3人 (san-nin, three people), 7月 (shichigatsu, July, "seventh-month"), 20歳 (hatachi, age 20), etc., although 三人, 七月 and 二十歳 are also acceptable to write (albeit less common). However, numbers that are part of lexemes are typically written in kanji. For example, the term yaoya (八百屋, 'vegetable stand / grocer') translates into "800 store", uses the Old Japanese pronunciation for 800, ya(h)o. The notorious Japanese organized crime syndicate, the yakuza, can be written 八九三 (or 893), a hand in oicho-kabu that is worth 0 points, indicating that yakuza are "worthless persons" or "gambling persons".[5]
Chinese numerals are words and characters used to denote numbers in written Chinese.
Furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana printed either above or next to kanji or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known as yomigana (読み仮名) and rubi in Japanese. In modern Japanese, it is usually used to gloss rare kanji, to clarify rare, nonstandard or ambiguous kanji readings, or in children's or learners' materials. Before the post-World War II script reforms, it was more widespread.
Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana as well as kanji.
Japanese names in modern times consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name. Japanese names are usually written in kanji, where the pronunciation follows a special set of rules. Because parents when naming children and foreigners when adopting a Japanese name are able to choose which pronunciations they want for certain kanji, the same written form of a name may have multiple readings. In exceptional cases, this makes it impossible to determine the intended pronunciation of a name with certainty. Even so, most pronunciations chosen for names are common, making them easier to read. While any jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji may be used as part of a name, names may be rejected if they are believed to fall outside what would be considered an acceptable name by measures of common sense.
Sano Shōichi, know by his pen name Unno Jūza, was a Japanese novelist who was the founding father of Japanese science fiction.
In Japanese, counter words or counters are measure words used with numbers to count things, actions, and events. Counters are added directly after numbers. There are numerous counters, and different counters are used depending on the kind or shape of nouns that are being described.
Aiki-ken is the name given specifically to the set of Japanese sword techniques practiced according to the principles of aikido, taught first by Morihei Ueshiba, then further developed by Morihiro Saito, one of Ueshiba's most prominent students. Currently, Iwama Shin-Shin Aiki Shuren-kai is the main proponent organization.
Kanbun is a system for writing Literary Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period until the 20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. As a result, Sino-Japanese vocabulary makes up a large portion of the Japanese lexicon and much classical Chinese literature is accessible to Japanese readers in some resemblance of the original.
The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana. Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis. Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana. Because of this mixture of scripts, in addition to a large inventory of kanji characters, the Japanese writing system is considered to be one of the most complicated currently in use.
The Suzhou numerals, also known as Sūzhōu mǎzi (蘇州碼子), is a numeral system used in China before the introduction of Hindu numerals. The Suzhou numerals are also known as huāmǎ (花碼), cǎomǎ (草碼), jīngzǐmǎ (菁仔碼), fānzǐmǎ (番仔碼) and shāngmǎ (商碼).
Chinese number gestures are a method to signify the natural numbers one through ten using one hand. This method may have been developed to bridge the many varieties of Chinese—for example, the numbers 4 and 10 are hard to distinguish in some dialects. Some suggest that it was also used by business people during bargaining when they wish for more privacy in a public place. These gestures are fully integrated into Chinese Sign Language.
The Japanese radiotelephony alphabet is a radiotelephony spelling alphabet, similar in purpose to the NATO/ICAO radiotelephony alphabet, but designed to communicate the Japanese kana syllables rather than Latin letters. The alphabet was sponsored by the now-defunct Ministry for Posts and Telecommunications.
Inugami Circus-dan (犬神サーカス団) are a Japanese rock band. The band's name literally translates to The Dog-God Circus Troupe. Their costumes typically consist of the female singer wearing a kimono, and the rest of the band wearing military-style uniforms. They also wear Gothic and Kabuki style make-up.
A collateral adjective is an adjective that is identified with a particular noun in meaning, but that is not derived from that noun. For example, the word bovine is considered the adjectival equivalent for the noun cattle, but it is derived from a different word, which happens to be the Latin word for "cattle". Similarly, lunar serves as an adjective to describe attributes of the Moon; Moon comes from Old English mōna "moon" and lunar from Latin luna "moon". The adjective thermal and the noun heat have a similar semantic relationship. As in these examples, collateral adjectives in English very often derive from the Latin or Greek translations of the corresponding nouns. In some cases both the noun and the adjective are borrowed, but from different languages, such as the noun air and the adjective aerial. The term "collateral" refers to these two sides of the relationship.
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Braille Kanji is a system of braille for transcribing written Japanese. It was devised in 1969 by Tai'ichi Kawakami, a teacher at the Osaka School for the Blind, and was still being revised in 1991. It supplements Japanese Braille by providing a means of directly encoding kanji characters without having to first convert them to kana. It uses an 8-dot braille cell, with the lower six dots corresponding to the cells of standard Japanese Braille, and the upper two dots indicating the constituent parts of the kanji. The upper dots are numbered 0 and 7, the opposite convention of 8-dot braille in Western countries, where the extra dots are added to the bottom of the cell. A kanji will be transcribed by anywhere from one to three braille cells.
小切手振出等事務取扱規程Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine 附則 (昭和四〇年四月一日大蔵省令第二〇号) 2: 小切手の券面金額は、当分の間、所定の金額記載欄に、漢数字により表示することができる。この場合においては、「一」、「二」、「三」及び「十」の字体は、それぞれ「壱」、「弐」、「参」及び「拾」の漢字を用い、かつ、所定の金額記載欄の上方余白に当該金額記載欄に記載の金額と同額をアラビア数字で副記しなければならない。
商業登記規則Archived 2009-02-02 at the Wayback Machine 第四十八条 2: 金銭その他の物の数量、年月日及び番号を記載するには、「壱、弐、参、拾」の文字を用いなければならない。ただし、横書きをするときは、アラビヤ数字を用いることができる。
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