10 in Japanese
十
Updated June 2026
10 in Japanese is 十, written じゅう in hiragana and read jū. Jū: the boundary where every teen begins
NUMERAL
10
KANJI
十
HIRAGANA
じゅう
ROMAJI
jū
Build-by-place breakdown
Counter-attached forms
How 10 attaches to common counters. Each links to the per-counter deep-dive.
Cultural context
Ten is the pivot of the entire counting system: every number from 11 to 99 is built from it (jū-ichi = 11, ni-jū = 20). The ten-yen coin (十円, jū-en) is the everyday copper coin, and 十 appears in words like 十字 (jūji, "cross shape"). Source: Wikipedia "Japanese numerals".
Daiji formal form (for cheques and contracts)
Real sentence examples
十円玉が必要です (jū-en-dama ga hitsuyō desu): I need a ten-yen coin.
十時に寝ます (jū-ji ni nemasu): I go to bed at 10 o’clock.
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Ten is jū, and it drives the build-by-place rule: jū + ones for the teens (jū-ichi = 11) and tens + jū for the round tens (ni-jū = 20). It geminates before several counters: jup-pon (十本), jup-piki (十匹), juk-ko (十個), jus-sai (十歳); the older readings jip-pon, jik-ko, and jis-sai are also correct and still listed in dictionaries. The general native form is the irregular tō (十), which drops the usual 〜つ suffix. The daiji form 拾 (also "to pick up") guards against 十 being altered into 千 (1,000).
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 10 in Japanese?
10 is written 十 in kanji and じゅう in hiragana. In romaji (modified Hepburn) it is jū.
What is 10 in hiragana?
10 in hiragana is じゅう. Hiragana spells out the reading jū phonetically; the kanji form is 十.
What is the formal (daiji) form of 10?
The daiji form of 10 is 拾. Daiji are elaborate kanji used on cheques, contracts, and official documents to stop anyone altering the simpler 十.
Related numbers
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