In every country, there are unlucky numbers people want to avoid since they’re creepy. Each unlucky number have the meanings why they’re “UNLUCKY” but do you know what are the unlucky numbers in Japan?

There are certain numbers that Japanese people think they’re unlucky and let’s find out what those creepy numbers are considered in Japan by this article.

1. Number “4” is Considered as “Death” in Japan

Number “4” is considered as one of the major famous unlucky numbers in Japan. Most Japanese people want to avoid this number in their daily life.

The reason why number 4 is considered as an unlucky number in Japan is because number 4 is “死” in Chinese character. The meaning of “死” is as follows:

・”死” means “death” in Japanese and we pronounce it as “shi” in Japanese. Number 4 can be pronounced as either “shi”or “yon” by Chinese reading and Japanese reading so number 4 reminds people of death by the same pronunciation as Chinese reading.

Since Japanese people consider this number 4 as unlucky number, there are some hotels or apartments with no room numbers including 4 since it’s bad luck in Japan.

2. Number “9” is Considered as “Suffer” in Japan

Number “9” is considered as one of the major famous unlucky numbers in Japan. Most Japanese people want to avoid this number in their daily life.

The reason why number 9 is considered as an unlucky number in Japan is because number 9 is “苦” in Chinese character. The meaning of “苦” is as follows:

・”苦” means “suffer” in Japanese and we pronounce it as “ku” in Japanese. Number 9 can be pronounced as either “ku”or “kokono” by Chinese reading and Japanese reading so number 9 reminds people of suffering by the same pronunciation as Chinese reading.

Since number 9 is considered as unlucky number, many hospitals don’t have the room number including number 9 considered for patients wouldn’t remind of any pain from suffering in Japan.

3. Combination Numbers “42” and “49” are Considered Unlucky

There are also combination numbers that remind people bad luck in Japan such as follows:

・ The combination numbers “42” is regarded as the meaning of “going to die” in Japan. “42” is written as “死に” in Japanese and makes people impression dying soon.

・The combination numbers “49” is regarded as the meaning of “die in painful death” in Japan. “49” is written as “死苦” in Japanese and makes people impression dying with suffering from something. Number 4 and 9 is major famous unlucky numbers in Japan and it means more worse by connecting both unlucky numbers in Japan.

4.Why Do People Care about Unlucky Numbers so Much?

If you have never cared about the unlucky numbers, it’s fine but you must not forget that there are some people who cares about bad luck by certain numbers.

Unlucky numbers cause people effect mentally in a bad way. If something bad happened to people, normally people try to think the all reasons and if people saw the unlucky numbers in advance, they tend to believe the unlucky numbers are one of the reasons for bad luck happened.

Even if you don’t believe any unlucky numbers, you should be careful not using the unlucky numbers easily.

Do you now see the major famous unlucky numbers in Japan and why those numbers make Japanese people feel creepy? Even the unlucky numbers are different from your own home countries, you can understand why the unlucky numbers make sense in Japan, right?

Some Japanese people tend to avoid using parking number, locker room, wedding date, the room of rental apartment any numbers including unlucky numbers “4”, “9”, “42” or “49” in general.

If you have your favorite numbers in unlucky numbers for Japanese, sorry but hopefully you can take it as a reference.

YAE

Japan