Introduction
Whether you like mathematics or not, a vital part of every single language and culture on earth is the communication of numbers and mathematical ideas.
In Japan, a country which is known internationally for its high level of mathematical fluency and its contributions to maths and science; it’s certainly important to have a good grasp on numbers and basic operations in Japanese, in order to get by in their society.
Learning the numbers in Japanese is one of the most beneficial things you can do on your language-learning journey.
It frees up the possibility of adding quantity and quantitative concepts to your speech and allows you to understand and communicate a far greater range of concepts and ideas with your other Japanese-speaking peers.
Even if you are just visiting Japan, or have limited interaction with Japanese culture, learning the basics of Japanese numeracy can give you the upper hand in day-to-day activities like shopping, planning, asking and giving the time and so many more little details that really add up.
Learning this might seem intimidating, but don’t worry! Superprof is here to help. In this article, we’ll be covering the basics of numeracy in Japanese, including adding, subtracting, reading and writing numbers and arming you with tips to help you integrate your learning into your language arsenal.
Let’s go!
Maths and Numeracy in Japan
Before we look at the vocabulary, let’s try to understand why proficiency in mathematics is almost synonymous with Japan.
- Differing views on maths: Maths is not a particularly popular subject in the West, despite its massive application and usefulness. If you’ve spent any amount of time in the education system or around children, you’ve probably heard many complaints about maths and the classic line ‘I’m never going to use this in real life!’. Many of us in school were just waiting for the day that maths was no longer compulsory for us.
Japan sees things differently. Instead of viewing maths as an individual field of study on equal footing with other subjects, Japan views maths as a fundamental skill set, just like spoken language, and therefore treats it as a downright necessity in the education system.
In principle, a firm knowledge of maths makes a student better at everything else, by increasing their comprehension of the world and increasing their problem-solving skills.
- A precise culture: When it comes to manufacturing, technology and engineering, Japan is highly renowned for its meticulousness and precision. This is all to do with the value placed on mathematics and its reverence in Japanese culture. It’s only natural that a culture that values maths so highly can achieve great feats with it.
- Competitiveness: Another reason Japan is so good with maths is not necessarily specific to the subject; it’s the idea that unlike the West where ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ have often been used as insults, Japanese people are more likely to be embarrassed by a lack of skill in mathematics than an affinity for it. This is due to the extremely competitive nature of both the educational and professional sectors in Japan.
Linguistic Differences Between Japanese and English Numbers
The first and most glaring difference between English and Japanese number systems is that while we only use one main number system, the Japanese have two distinct ones, which have different purposes.
The native Japanese number system
- The native system is the sort of ‘everyday’ number system that the Japanese use in colloquial life. It’s used for counting things like items, people and other comparable concepts. If you were counting how many trees you could see immediately in front of you, or perhaps how many bottles there were on a table, the native system is the one you would use to communicate such information.
The Sino-Japanese System
- Imported from Chinese culture, the Sino-Japanese number system is reserved for much larger orders of magnitude and more specifically mathematical applications, such as statistics. If we go back to our example of trees and bottles, a more suitable use of the Sino-Japanese system would be for counting how many trees there are in a prefecture, or even the whole of Japan, and for bottles, perhaps the amount of bottles manufactured per month or year in Japan.
Counters/ Josūshi - じょすうし
- To make matters even more confusing, Japan uses separate counters for the different categories of things that they might be counting. The reason for this is that the numbers alone can’t be used to quantify nouns, so you need to add a counter to give meaning to the number. The counter attaches to the number and categorises the thing being counted. Examples of such categories are ‘long thing things’, ‘small animals’, just to name a few.
In order to say ‘two dogs’, you can’t just say ‘inu ni’, you need to add the counter ‘hiki’, for small animals and the result is ‘inu nihiki’.
Counting to 100 in Japanese:
Unfortunately, we can’t go over every nuance in this article, as much as we’d love to teach you every different Josūshi.
Instead, we’re going to tackle a healthy milestone for any language learner approaching numbers in their language of choice… being able to count up to 100.
Despite all the complications we discussed before, it’s actually not too difficult to start counting in Japanese.
This is because unlike English, which causes problems for most learners, the Japanese multiples of ten follow a defined linguistic structure after 20, which means that once you learn your first 10 numbers you can put together the rest.
One last little fact before we start… It might be worth knowing what the Japanese word for ‘number’ is; there are two, depending on what you’re referring to. First is Kazu (数), which refers to numerical numbers. Secondly is Bangō (番号), which refers to given numbers such as phone numbers.
Numbers in Japanese: 1 - 10
Below are the numbers one to ten, written in all the main forms you might find them in.
| English Number | Romanised Japanese Number | Kanji | Hiragana | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | rei | 零 | れい | |
| 1 | ichi | 一 | いち | |
| 2 | ni | 二 | に | |
| 3 | san | 三 | さん | |
| 4 | shi / yon | 四 | し / よん | |
| 5 | go | 五 | ご | |
| 6 | roku | 六 | ろく | |
| 7 | shichi / nana | 七 | しち / なな | |
| 8 | hachi | 八 | はち | |
| 9 | kyu / ku | 九 | きゅう / く | |
| 10 | juu | 十 | じゅう |
These are the numbers from the Sino-Japanese system. You might be curious as to why there are two entries for the numbers 4, 7 and 9.
This is because the names of these numbers in the Sino-Japanese system sound quite like some unsavoury concepts in spoken Japanese, to such an extent that people in Japan consider it bad luck to speak them aloud, quite like our unlucky numbers in English-speaking cultures, like the infamous 13.
Shi or 4, shares a pronunciation with the word ‘shi’/(死), which means ‘death’. This cultural phenomenon runs so deep that there are even hospitals that don’t have a 4th operating room, among other such concessions.
43 is even more superstitious since it can be taken to literally mean ‘stillborn/stillbirth’. You’ll never find a 43rd maternity ward in a Japanese hospital, no matter how large it is.
7 of course shares the same issue, containing the syllable ‘shi’ and number 9 is considered unlucky because it shares a pronunciation with the word for ‘suffering’ or ‘hardship’: Ku/(苦)
To get around this, numbers from other systems are often borrowed to replace these superstitious numbers when pronouncing them.
Check out this video for tips on how to pronounce numbers from 1 to 10.
11-19:
Believe it or not, once you’ve learned these 10 numbers, you’re good to go. To say the numbers between 11 and 20, you only need to add ‘juu’ (10) in front of the last number to get the variations. For example, 15 is ‘juu-go’, and 18 is ‘juu-hachi’.
These numbers, much like ours in English, are unique, but afterwards, we can begin to apply the same rules to get every variation we need.
Without looking ahead, try it yourself first. What do you think 13 is?
The answer is of course ‘juu-san’... Did you manage to get it right?
20-100:
Now to go from 20 to 100, we only need to switch things around a little bit, using words we already know. Instead of putting ‘juu’ first, we put it after the first number, and the result is the multiple of 10.
I bet you can get a few without us even telling you! What do you think 60 is?
That’s right! It’s ‘roku-juu’!
No prizes for guessing how we specify the last number. In fact, it’s as simple as putting the last number at the end.
Just to give an example, to say 56, you would say ‘go-juu-roku’.
Experiment with making a few numbers of your own between 10 and 100, you’ll be surprised how easy it is once you learn the first 10.
Lastly, the icing on the cake… 100 in Japanese is Hyaku/(百).
Afterword
We hope you enjoyed learning how to count in Japanese, even though it's a basic skill, it's still satisfying to learn and begin using in conversation. If you want to learn more about Japanese basics, please check out our other Japanese articles right here on the Superprof blog.
If you want to take your Japanese learning to the next level, why not make use of Supeprof’s premium service which aims to get you in touch with the ideal tutor for your needs, based on your location.
Arigato, we hope to see you again soon!
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