Japanese Numbers
数字 （すうじ suuji）

We use positions like tens, hundreds and thousands to denote the base elements of our numbering system. Unlike most numbering systems which start over at 1,000 (one thousand), Japanese doesn't start over until 10,000 (ten thousand).

For example:
NumberEnglishJapaneseLiteral translation
Kanji
1oneichione一
10tenjuuten十
100one hundredhyakuhundred百
1,000one thousandissenone thousand (1 sen)一千
10,000TEN thousandichi manone [ten thousands] (1 man)一万
100,000ONE HUNDRED thousandJUU manTEN [ten thousands] (10 man)十万
1,000,000one millionHYAKU manONE HUNDRED [ten thousands] (100 man)百万
10,000,000TEN millionISSEN manONE THOUSAN [ten thousands] (1,000 man)一千万
100,000,000ONE HUNDRED millionichi okuone [one hundred thousands] (1 oku)一億

This is the MOST difficult part of Japanese numbers. It makes it quite difficult at first to equate numbers larger than ten thousand in your head.

To say thirty-three thousand fourty-two (33,042) it would be three [ten thousands] four tens two (sanMan yonJuu ni).

Six hundred thousand (600,000) would be six [ten thousands] (rokuMan).

It gets really long with numbers like nineteen ninety-eight (1998) which would be one thousand nine hundreds nine tens eight (sen kyuuHyaku kyuuJuu hachi).
Or 99,887,766 which is kyuuSen kyuuHyaku hachiJuu hachiMan nanaSen nanaHyaku rokuJuu roku.

Don't let the length intimidate you, start with small numbers. Try doing very basic math with Japanese numbers until you are comfortable with the values that they represent. Most importantly Gambatte! (Hang in there!)

Part II.

Back to the introduction.