Japanese count differently than other languages. Thanks to Japanese ideograms, some numbers have pronunciation variations. This can end up confusing some and give rise to puns that we will cover in this article.
They often use words to represent numbers or numbers to represent words. These puns are often used in ments as a way to help people phone numbers. These number puns are called Goroawase (語呂合わせ).
First we recommend that you at least understand how counting and numbers work in Japanese. For that we will leave some articles for you to read below:
The Japanese language has few phonemes, and because of the ideograms some words are only one or two phonemes. A single phoneme can mean many things, that's why some Japanese use the pronunciation of numbers to give some meaning. Here's an example of the pronunciation possibilities with Japanese numbers:
| N | KANJI | 読み | ENGLISH |
| 0 | 零 | ma(ru), o, re(i) | o, zero, ze |
| 1 | 一 | hi(to), i(chi), wan | wan |
| 2 | 二 | fu, bu, pu, ni, tsu(u) | tsu, tu |
| 3 | 三 | mi, sa(n), za, su(ri) | su, suri |
| 4 | 四 | shi, yo(n) | foo, faa, ho |
| 5 | 五 | go, ko, itsu | faibu, faivu |
| 6 | 六 | mu, ro(ku) | shikkusu |
| 7 | 七 | na(na), shichi | sebun, sevun |
| 8 | 八 | ha(chi), ba, pa, ya, e(ito) | euto |
| 9 | 九 | ku, kyu(u) | nain |
| 10 | 十 | to(o), juu | ten |
This is one of the reasons why the Japanese are afraid of the numbers 4 (shi - 四) which reminds them of death (shi - 死) and 9 (ku - 九) which reminds them of black (kuro - 黒). Another example is the number 43 (shisan) where the pronunciation is similar to the birth of the dead shizan (死産).
In the case of puns, they usually read the numbers separately, which was the case of four and three (shi san) and not forty-three (yon juu san). The Japanese can also use the reading of numbers from a foreign language like English to make these puns. Not to mention that the kanji often have similar readings that are alternated by the dakuten.
With these puns the Japanese use numbers to write secret words and expressions. Using the pronunciation of Japanese numbers which are simple syllables we can easily assemble words and sentences using numbers. If someone sends you messages written in number you may be able to decipher them!
Note that even the name Goro can have a number pun (56).
Table of Contents
Goroawase - Numeric puns from Japan
1492 - This was the year they discovered America, thinking about that the expression was created Yo! Kuni Ga Mieta (いよ国が見えた). This expression literally means: Wow! I can see the land! (or a country) or land in sight! This happens because each phoneme can represent a number from 1492: i (1) yo (4) ku (9) ni (2).
23564 - The sidereal day is exactly 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds, indicating the Earth's period of rotation in relation to the stars. In Japanese, this number can be read as ni-san-go-ro-shi, which sounds very similar to nii-san-koroshi (兄さん殺し) that translates to "killing brother."
3.14159265 - This is the number of the famous PI that can be pronounced san-i-shi-i-ko-ku-ni-mu-ko, which sounds similar to (産医師異国に向こう), which translates to "An obstetrician is going to a foreign country." For those who don't know, obstetrician is a doctor who takes care of women's reproduction.
4649 - This number can be read as yo-ro-shi-ku, which literally means "Nice to meet you or I count on your help."
573 - This number sounds quite like konami. 573 appears in many phone numbers of Konami or on arcade machines.
23 - Can be read as "ni san" in reference to Nissan which usually numbers its cars with "23" at motorsport events.
59 - This number can indicate "ten go ku" (Heaven) which means paradise. This happens because ten is 10 in English and the 50 is in the tens place continuing. just like go (5) and ku (9).
- 801 "ya o i" - yaoi which means Gay;
- 39 - "san-kyu" - (thank you);
- 893 - "ya-ku-za" (やくざ) Japanese mafia;
- 39 - "mi-ku" - Hatsune Miku;
- 15 - "ichi-go" - strawberry;
- 90 - "ku-ma" - bear;
- 96 - "kuro" - black;
- 18782 - "i-ya-na-ya-tsu" (いやなやつ) unpleasant;
- 37564 - "mi-na-go-ro-shi" (みなごろし) massacre;
- 889 - ha-ya-ku - fast;
Numerical puns in anime
To understand that making puns with numbers is something quite common in Japan. We separate some examples of anime and other media that used puns involving numbers to something.
The first example is in the recent anime Darling in the franxx where the characters have numbers instead of names. If you pay attention, the names the characters give each other are related to their numbers. 015, for example, is called Ichigo. The other characters are: Naomi (703) | Zorome (666) | Hiro (016) | Mitsuri (326);
In the movie about the girl who jumps in time (toki wo kakeru shoujo) it is mentioned that the weather will be fine on July 13th (7-1-3) which is equal to na-i-su (Nice) in English.
- The protagonist of Ah! My Goddess signs his name as K1 (keiichi);
- Kogoro from Detective Conan likes to use his name written in numbers 556 as a (kogoro).
- In Inazuma Eleven, Tsunami's surfboard has "273" written on it.
puns on dates in japan
The Japanese also tend to make puns on special dates. Of course, these dates are not real, but it's a quite funny idea. Let's list them below.
- January 3rd Hitomi Day - Hitomi Day
- January 5th Strawberry Day - strawberry day
- February 9 Fuku no hi - clothing day
- February 10th Knit Day NEET no hi - Neet Day
- February 22 Cat Day - cat day
- March 9 Thank You Day Sankyu no hi - day of thanks
- March 13 Sandwich Day Sandoiicchi no hi - sandwich day
- April 15 Good Child Day Yoi ko no hi - day of the good child
- August 7th Flower Day Hana no hi - flower day
- August 7th Banana Day - banana day
- August 29 Yakiniku Day - Japanese barbecue day
There is even a site where you can create your own Goroawase. I hope you liked the article! Don't forget to share with friends and leave your comments. Were you able to understand all the puns?
