The number four (4) is called either “yon” or “shi” in Japanese. In the case of four you can say any of those. But for other words, like “death” (死）that is also pronounced “shi”, you can’t change it for “yon”. In other words, “shi” and “yon” are both words that represents the number four.

There is no English number system. We use Arabic numerals and sometimes Roman numerals. There is also no Japanese number system. They use both Arabic and Chinese numerals.

There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese: in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) or in Chinese numerals (一, 二, 三). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing. However, as a number, it is only written as 0 or rei (零).

There are two different counting systems in Japan: the Sino-Japanese and the Native Japanese number systems. Sino-Japanese comes from Chinese origins, while Native Japanese originates from Japan.

1 Answer. Numbers are frequently written using Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3,…) in Japanese just as they are in English. However, numbers written in kanji are still used from daily life in traditional style Japanese bars ( 居酒屋いざかや ) to official documents, counters, and historical documents.

Etymologically speaking, nana is the original Japanese “seven”, while shichi is Chinese (cf. Mandarin qi, Cantonese chat, etc.) Sometimes it’s even pronounced as ひち instead of しち! 🙂 I think when you’re talking on the phone people tend to use なな more, because しち can be mistaken for 四（し）.

死 (shi) means “death,” and consists of two parts. The top and left line represents a bone and the left side represents a person who is upside down in the ground. It indicates death of the person. Many of us may not want to think about death.

Nine (9) is 九 (kyuu, pronounced “kyoo”). Ten (10) is 十 (juu, pronounced “joo”).

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