ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

the Japanese number grid

Teachers Notes

Aims:

This activity will give pupils experience of writing Japanese numerals

up to 99, which shows a pattern.

Background information:

Until the 9th century AD, Japanese had no fixed writing system.
Chinese characters, known in Japan as kanji had previously been
imported, but these did not adequately cope with Japanese, which was
a completely different language. Two additional sets of characters
based on sounds, hiragana and katakana, gradually evolved to solve
the problem and written Japanese was born.

Nowadays, any piece of Japanese text will be a mixture of kanji,

hiragana and katakana. Traditionally, Japanese is written in vertical
columns, starting on the right of the page and moving to the left.
However, in 1946, Japanese newspapers began to include horizontal
writing, from left to right. Both forms of writing are now in use. The
horizontal form tends to be more convenient for science, geography,
music, history and mathematics, but for Japanese literature, the
vertical form is still preferred.

If you would like to write Japanese properly, it is important to write

strokes in a certain order. The sheet ‘Japanese numbers’ shows the
stroke order for the numbers 1 - 10.

Other related activity sheets for practicing reading and writing

Japanese kanji numerals are: ‘Numbers in kanji’ (a shorter form of the
Japanese number grid), ‘Numbers written in Japanese’, ‘Dates shown
in Japanese characters’ and ‘Some facts about Japan’.

Please go through the instructions for completing ‘The Japanese

Number Grid’ with pupils before they start and remind them of the
English words for the numbers eleven to nineteen.

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
the japanese number grid

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

Complete the Japanese Number Grid.

There is no kanji numeral for ‘zero’, therefore the top right square remains blank. The kanji
numerals for the numbers from one to ten, one hundred and one thousand have already been
filled in for you. Please start from 11 in the “10” column.
In Japanese this is written ten and one ( ). (Remember that kanji script runs vertically.)
Continue to the bottom of the column, ten-nine. The next column is twenty, this is shown by
two and ten ( ). So for 21 you need the symbols for two, ten and one ( ).
Continue and complete the column. By the time you reach 99 the pattern will be obvious.
NB. Ten, hundred and thousand are expressed in one symbol.

1000 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
 ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan
numbers in kanji
Numbers written in KANJI are usually written vertically whereas arabic numbers (e.g. 1,
2, 3, …etc) are used when Japanese is written horizontally.

After two lines of practising the numbers from 1-10 continue to write the numbers up to


30. In Japanese numbers from 11 - 19 are written ‘10 and 1’ (  ) etc, 20 is ‘2 ten’ ( 

),

21 is ‘2 ten and 1’ (
) etc.


Then write today’s date and your birthday.

Note: January is the 1st month of the year, February is the 2nd, March is the 3rd,
etc… In Japanese the month is written before the day. So

 is 1st January.

Your Today’s 26 21 16 11
Birthday
is
Date is
1

 2

27 22 17 12

 3

   4

28 23 18 13

 5

 6

29 24 19 14

 
8

30 25 20 15

 10

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
japanese numbers

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan



1
2

4
3


1

2  2
1

 
2
1
1


2
1 2
1
3 4


1
2
2 3

4
numbers written in japanese

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

A. Translate the following into English:
No. Word Character
1. 2. 3. 4.
  
 

1 ichi

1.
__________________ 
2.
3.
2 ni 
4.
---------------------------
Total __________________ 3 san 

B. Translate the following into Japanese:

(don’t forget to write the numbers from top to bottom) 4 shi / yon 
1. Twenty-two 2. One hundred-and-ten
3. Ninety-nine 4. Five hundred 5 go 
1. 2. 3. 4.
6 roku 

shichi /
7 
nana

C. Write today’s date below:

8 hachi 

in English: __________________
9 ku / kyu
in Japanese (in the box):

10 ju

100 hyaku 

D. Now write your birthday below:

1000 sen 
in English: __________________

in Japanese (in the box): 10000 man



Month 

Day

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
dates shown in japanese characters

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

The following dates are important in Japan: -

A. Change the dates in 1-5 into English in the spaces provided.

1.
2.  3.  4. 5.

 
 



    
   
 


1 _______________________ : Foundation of the country day

2 _______________________ : Greenery Day (birthday of the Emperor Showa)

3 _______________________ : New Year’s Eve

4 _______________________ : Marine Day

5 _______________________ : Setsubun, bean throwing ceremony

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Change the dates in 6-10 into Japanese in the spaces provided.

6. 1st January : New Year’s Day

7. 3rd March : Girls’ Day
8. 5th May : Boys’ Day
9. 7th July : Tanabata Matsuri (Star Festival)
10. 3rd November : Culture Day

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
some facts about japan

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

Traditionally, Japanese was written vertically in columns starting from the right and moving to
the left of the page. However, in the 20th century horizontal writing was introduced and today,
both systems are used. In Japanese newspapers, magazines and other printed materials today
you will find both ways of writing.
Horizontal writing tends to be more convenient for science, geography, music, history
and mathematics, but vertical writing is still preferred for literature. Usually, Japanese
people use Arabic numerals for horizontal writing and kanji numerals for vertical writing.
Kanji numerals do not include a symbol for ‘zero’. There are individual symbols for 10

, 100
, 1,000
, and 10,000
.

1 ichi 
2 ni 
3 san
4 shi / yon

5 go 
6 roku 
7 shichi / nana
8 hachi 
9 ku / kyu 
10 ju 
100 hyaku 
1000 sen 
10000 man 


BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
some facts about japan

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

4 3 2 1
There are The capital of The Japan consists of
Japan is Tokyo population of

with over Japan is

   main islands

volcanoes, and
  (Hokkaido, Honshu,
Shikoku and Kyushu)
 and over
 million
inhabitants.  

million which 
of them are is now
active. Japan tiny islands.
experiences


 times greater

than



earthquakes % of Japan is covered
per year. years ago. by mountains.

Read the sentences in the table above and fill in the gaps.

1. Japan consists of ____ main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) and over
____ tiny islands. Over ____ % of Japan is covered by mountains.

2. The population of Japan is ____ million which is now ____ times greater than ____ years
ago.

3. The capital of Japan is Tokyo with over ____ million inhabitants.

4. There are ____ volcanoes, and ____ of them are active. Japan experiences ________
earthquakes per year.

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
some facts about japan

ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan

7 6 5
It is The length of Mt. Fuji is the
the country highest
 from
north to
mountain in
Japan, at
 south is

 

 

 

kilometres. 
The widest
point from 
kilometres from London east to west
to Tokyo. The shortest is 
journey takes




 metres. It
 last erupted in

kilometres.
hours by air. 




Read the sentences in the table above and fill in the gaps.

5. Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, at ________ metres. It last erupted in ________.

6. The length of the country from north to south is ________ kilometres. The widest point from
east to west is ____ kilometres.

7. It is __________ kilometres from London to Tokyo. The shortest journey takes ____ hours by
air.

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN
 ichi, ni, san – numberwork japan
counting with fingers in japanese style
Use Right hand for Units

and Left hand for Tens

0 1 2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9 10

This is a traditional Japanese counting system.

However, the representations of 0 and 10 have been designed by the author.

BY KIMIE MARKARIAN