Numbering System
Basic system
Here we will learn about the Japanese numbering system.
The first thing you need to know is that Japanese has different units for counting numbers, most notably counting by 10,000’s until 100,000,000.
That means that Japanese counting looks something like this:
1
10
100
1000
10,000
10x10,000 (100,000)
100x10,000 (1,000,000)
1,000x10,000 (10,000,000)
100,000,000
*Please note we only put x in the numbers to better represent how it is being counted in Japanese.
Japan usually uses Latin numbers for 1-10 like English, but you should still learn the Kanji for them anyway. They’re quite easy.
Number chart
| Number | Kanji | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一 | いち |
| 2 | 二 | に |
| 3 | 三 | さん |
| 4 | 四 | し・よん |
| 5 | 五 | ご |
| 6 | 六 | ろく |
| 7 | 七 | しち |
| 8 | 八 | はち |
| 9 | 九 | きゅう |
| 10 | 十 | じゅう |
| 100 | 百 | ひゃく |
| 1000 | 千 | せん |
| 10,000 | 万 | まん |
| 100,000 | 十万 | じゅう まん |
| 1,000,000 | 百万 | ひゃく まん |
| 10,000,000 | 千万 | せん まん |
| 100,000,000 | 億 | おく |
Examples
- 50 – ごじゅう （literally 5-10)
- 15 -じゅうご (literally 10-5)
- 1000 – 千（せん）this is not 一千 (a thousand, not one thousand)
- 5,700 – 5千7百 – ごせん７ひゃく (5×1000, 7×100)
- 32,000 – 3万2千 – さんまん にせん (3×10,000, 2×1000)
- 400,000 – 40万 – よんじゅうまん (40×10,000)
It helps to remember the numbers past 10,000 as the specific combination needed, for example:
- 100,000 – 十万 （じゅうまん）10×10,000
- 1,000,000 – 百万 (ひゃくまん）100×10,0000
See next: Counters