Japanese numerals

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Japanese numerals

The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names

Number names

In linguistics, a number name, or numeral, is a word in a natural language that signifi? a number.In history of writing, numerals are symbols representing numeral systems....
used in the Japanese language

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
. The Japanese numerals in writing are entirely based on the Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
tradition

Culture of China

The Culture of China is one of the world's oldest and most complex cultures. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and Province ....
of grouping by 10,000. Two sets of pronunciations for the numerals exist in Japanese, one is based on Sino-Japanese (on'yomi) readings of the Chinese characters and the other is based on the Japanese kun'yomi readings.

Basic numbering in Japanese
There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese, in Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals

The 'arabic numerals', or 'Hindu numerals' are the ten digits , which?along with Decimal Number System by which a sequence was read as a number?were originally defined by Indian mathematics, later modified and transferred to North African Islamic mathematics and transmitted to Europe in the Middle Ages, whence they spread around the wo...
(1, 2, 3) or in Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals

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Encyclopedia

The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names

Number names

Japanese language

Chinese numerals

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
tradition

Culture of China

Basic numbering in Japanese

There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese, in Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals

Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese language. Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous system of Arabic numeral system, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems....
(?, ?, ?). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing.

(Some numbers have multiple names.)

Number	Character	Preferred reading	On reading Kanji are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....	Kun reading Kanji are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....
0 0 (number) 0 is both a number and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numeral system. It plays a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures....	? / ?^*	zero	rei / ??	-
1 1 (number) 1 is a number, number names, and the name of the glyph representing that number.It represents a single entity, the unit of counting or measurement....	?	ichi	ichi / ??	hito(tsu) / ??(?)
2 2 (number) 2 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3 ....	?	ni	ni, ji / ?, ?	futa(tsu) / ??(?)
3 3 (number) ----3 is a number, Numeral system, and glyph. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4 ....	?	san	san / ??	mi(ttsu) / ?(??)
4 4 (number) This article discusses the number Four. For the year 4 AD, see 4. For other uses of 4, see 4 4 is a number, numeral, and glyph....	?	yon	shi / ?	yon, yo(ttsu) / ????(??)
5 5 (number) 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 4 and preceding 6 ....	?	go	go / ?	itsu(tsu) / ??(?)
6 6 (number) 6 is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7 .The SI prefix for 10006 is exa , and for its reciprocal atto ....	?	roku	roku / ??	mu(ttsu) / ?(??)
7 7 (number) 7 is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8 . It is the smallest positive integer to be spoken with two syllables when pronounced in English....	?	nana	shichi / ??	nana(tsu) / ??(?)
8 8 (number) 8 is the natural number, following 7 and preceding 9 . The SI prefix for 10008 is yotta , and for its reciprocal yocto . It is the root of two other numbers: eighteen and eighty ....	?	hachi	hachi / ??	ya(ttsu) / ?(??)
9 9 (number) 9 is the natural number following 8 and preceding 10 . The ordinal adjective is ninth....	?	kyu	kyu, ku / ???, ?	kokono(tsu) / ???(?)
10 10 (number) 10 is an Even and odd numbers natural number following 9 and preceding 11 ....	?	ju	ju / ???	to / ??
20 20 (number) 20 is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21 . A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score....	??	ni-ju	ni-ju / ????	hata(chi) / ??(?)
30 30 (number) 30 is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31 ....	??	san-ju	san-ju / ?????	miso / ??
100 100 (number) 100 is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101 ....	?	hyaku	hyaku / ???	(momo / ??)
1,000 1000 (number) 1000 is the natural number following 999 and preceding 1001 ....	?	sen	sen / ??	(chi / ?)
10,000 10000 (number) 10000 is the natural number following 9999 and preceding 10001....	?	man	man / ??	(yorozu / ???)
100,000,000 100000000 (number) One hundred million is the natural number following 99999999 and preceding 100000001.In scientific notation, it is written as 108....	?	oku	oku / ??	-
1,000,000,000,000	?	cho	cho / ???	-

* The special reading maru is also found. It is 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

Shibuya, Tokyo

is one of the Special wards of Tokyo of Tokyo, Japan. As of 2008, it had an estimated population of 208,371 and a population density of 13,540 persons per km?....
which is read as ichi-maru-kyu. This usage of maru for numerical 0 is similar to reading numeral 0 in English as oh. It literally means a circle. However, as a number, it is only written as 0 or .

The numbers 4 and 9 are considered unlucky in Japanese: 4, pronounced shi, is a homophone for ; 9, when pronounced ku, is a homophone for . See tetraphobia

Tetraphobia

Tetraphobia is an aversion or fear of the number 4 . It is a superstition most common in East Asian regions such as China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan....
. The number 13 is sometimes considered unlucky, though this is a carryover from Western tradition

Triskaidekaphobia

Triskaidekaphobia is Phobia of the number 13 ; it is a superstition and related to a specific fear of Friday the 13th, called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia....
.

In modern Japanese, the digits are called with the on readings except 4 and 7, which are called yon and nana respectively. Alternate readings are used in month names, day-of-month names, and fixed phrases. For instance, the decimal fraction 4.79 is always read yon-ten nana kyu, though April, July, and September are called shi-gatsu (4th month), shichi-gatsu (7th month), and ku-gatsu (9th month) respectively. Intermediate numbers are made by combining these elements:

Tens from 20 to 90 are "(digit)-ju".
Hundreds from 200 to 900 are "(digit)-hyaku".
Thousands from 2000 to 9000 are "(digit)-sen".
Additionally, the tens from 30 to 90 in kun reading are formed by "(digit)-so", where the digit is also in kun reading: miso (30), yoso (40), iso (50), muso (60), nanaso (70), yaso (80), kokonoso (90). Variations include i for 50 and the suffix -ji for 20 through 90. However, for the most part, these are not in use in modern Japanese.

There are some phonetic modifications to larger numbers, but they are a minor detail.

In large numbers, elements are combined from largest to smallest, and zeros are implied.
Number Character Reading
11 ?? ju ichi
17 ?? ju nana, ju shichi
151 ???? hyaku go-ju ichi
302 ??? san-byaku ni*
469 ????? yon-hyaku roku-ju kyu
2025 ????? ni-sen ni-ju go
* Hyaku becomes byaku due to rendaku
Rendaku

is a phenomenon in Japanese language morphophonology which governs the phonation of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word....
.

Powers of 10

Large numbers

Following Chinese tradition, large numbers are created by grouping digits in myriad
Myriad

Myriad is a classical Greek language name for the number 104 = 10000 . In modern English language the word refers to an unspecified large quantity....
s (every 10,000) rather than the Western thousands (1000):
Rank 10⁴ 10⁸ 10¹² 10¹⁶ 10²⁰ 10²⁴ 10²⁸ 10³² 10³⁶ 10⁴⁰ 10⁴⁴ 10⁴⁸ 10⁵² or 10⁵⁶ 10⁵⁶ or 10⁶⁴ 10⁶⁰ or 10⁷² 10⁶⁴ or 10⁸⁰ 10⁶⁸ or 10⁸⁸
Character ? ? ? ? ? ??, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??? ??? ???/??? ???? ????
Reading man oku cho kei gai jo, shi jo ko kan sei sai goku gogasha asogi nayuta fukashigi muryotaisu

Variation is due to Jinkoki, Japan's oldest mathematics text. The initial edition was published in 1627. It had many errors. Most of these 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.

Examples: (spacing by groups of four digits is given only for clarity of explanation)
1 0000 : ?? (ichi-man)
983 6703 : ?????? ????? (kyu-hyaku hachi-ju san man, roku-sen nana-hyaku san)
20 3652 1801 : ??? ???????? ???? (ni-ju oku, san-zen rop-pyaku go-ju ni-man, sen hap-pyaku ichi)

However, numbers written in Arabic numerals are separated by commas every three digits following Western 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? 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 ??? (In contrast, Chinese requires the use of ? wherever a zero appears, e.g. ???? for 4002). However, in reading, the letter zero is sometimes pronounced as tobi or tonde to indicate the lack of numbers, e.g. yon-sen tobi ni or yon-sen tonde ni can be used 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 ??????? "fifty-fifty chance"), and when representing a rate or discount.

One system is as follows:

Rank 10^-1 10^-2 10^-3 10^-4 10^-5 10^-6 10^-7 10^-8 10^-9 10^-10
Character ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Reading bu rin mo shi kotsu bi sen sha jin ai

This is the system used with the traditional Japanese units of measurement
Japanese units of measurement

is the traditional Japanese Systems of measurement. The name shakkanho originates from the name of two of the Units of measurement, the shaku, a unit of length, and the kan, a mass measurement....
. Several of the names are used "as is" to represent a fraction of a shaku
Shaku

The shaku is an archaic Japanese unit of length, approximately equal to the foot . As with other measurements, it was originally derived from nature: the average length between Node on bamboo....
.

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:
Rank 10^-1 10^-2 10^-3 10^-4 10^-5
Character ? ? ? ? ?
Reading wari bu rin mo shi
This is often used with prices. For example:
?????? (ichi-wari go-bu biki): 15% discount
???????? (daritsu san-wari hachi-bu kyu-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: ???·??? ??????), in which powers of ten are written, or with the place value system, which uses zero (50.04 percent: ??·?? ?????.) In both cases, however, the reading follows the traditional system (yon-ju ni-ten ichi-kyu go kirometoru for 42.195 kilometers; go ju-tten rei-yon pasento for 50.04 percent.)

Formal numbers

Like in Chinese numerals, there exists in Japanese a separate set of kanji for numerals called daiji 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

Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese language. Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous system of Arabic numeral system, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems....
except for minor stroke variations. Today, only the formal numbers for one, two, three, and ten are used in legal documents. They are the ones whose 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 ???? for 110, as opposed to ?? in common writing.

Formal numbers:

Number	Common	Formal
Number	Common	In use	Obsolete
1	?	?	?
2	?	?	?
3	?	?	?
4	?	?	?
5	?	?	?
6	?	?	?
7	?	?	?, ?
8	?	?	?
9	?	?	?
10	?	?	?
100	?	?	?
1000	?	?	?, ?
10000	?	?, ?	?

The four current banknotes of the Japanese yen

Banknotes of the Japanese yen

The banknotes of the Japanese yen are part of the physical form of Japan's currency. The issuance of the Japanese yen banknotes began in 1872, two years after the currency was introduced....
, 1000-yen, 2000-yen, 5000-yen, and 10000-yen, have formal numbers ?, ??, ??, and ?? respectively.

Old Japanese

Old Japanese language

is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language....
shares some vocabulary with later periods, but there are also some unique numbers which are not used any more.

Notes:

The transcription is based on the phoneme
Phoneme

In human language, a phoneme is the smallest posited linguistically distinctive unit of sound. Phonemes carry no semantic content themselves. In theoretical terms, phonemes are not the physical segment s themselves, but cognitive abstractions or categorizations of them....
and is not phonetic. See Old Japanese language
Old Japanese language

is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language....
for further information.
See Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai
Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai

is an archaic kanazukai used to write Japanese language during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables as discussed below that later merged together....
for information on subscript notation.

Number	Reading	Examples	Notes
1	hi₁to₂	hi₁to₂hi₁ (1 day), hi₁to₂to₂se (1 year)
2	huta	hutayo₁ (2 nights)
3	mi₁	mi₁so₁ (30)
4	yo₂	yo₂so₁ (40), yo₂tari (4 people)
5	itu	ituto₂se (5 years)
6	mu	mutuma (6 claws)
7	nana	nanase (many rapids)	Often used to mean many.
8	ya	yakumo₁ (many clouds)	Often used to mean many.
9	ko₂ko₂no₂	ko₂ko₂no₂hashira (9 nobles / gods)
10	to₂ / to₂wo	to₂woka (10 days)
10	so₁	mi₁so₁ (30), yo₂so₁ (40), muso₁ (60), yaso (80)	Found only in compound words; not used alone.
20	hata	hatati (20), hatatari (20 people), hatato₂se (20 years)
50	i	ika (50 days)
100	ho	iho (500), ihoto₂se (500 years), ihoyo₂ (500 nights), yaho (800), mi₁ho (300), muho (600), ko₂ko₂no₂ho (900)	Used for multiple hundreds. Often used to mean many.
100	mo₁mo₁	mo₁mo₁ka (many days)	Used for non-multiple hundred. Often used to mean many.
1000	ti	tito₂se (1000 years, many years)	Often used to mean many.

Japanese numerals

Basic numbering in Japanese

Powers of 10

Large numbers

Decimal fractions

Formal numbers

Old Japanese

See also

External links