1000 in Japanese

Updated June 2026

1,000 in Japanese is , written せん in hiragana and read sen. Drop the ichi (1000 = sen, not ichi-sen)

NUMERAL

1,000

KANJI

HIRAGANA

せん

ROMAJI

sen

Counter-attached forms

How 1000 attaches to common counters. Each links to the per-counter deep-dive.

Yen

sen-en

Daiji formal form (for cheques and contracts)

Used on bank cheques and contracts to prevent forgery of the simpler kanji .

Real sentence examples

千円札を一枚ください (sen-en-satsu o ichi-mai kudasai): one 1000-yen note please.

千年の歴史があります (sen-nen no rekishi ga arimasu): it has a 1000-year history.

Pronunciation and morphology notes

One thousand is sen, not ichi-sen. Same ichi-drop convention as hyaku. Sound-changes in the thousands: 1000 sen, 2000 ni-sen, 3000 san-zen (rendaku), 4000 yon-sen, 5000 go-sen, 6000 roku-sen, 7000 nana-sen, 8000 has-sen (gemination), 9000 kyu-sen. 10,000 switches to a different unit: ichi-man. The daiji form 仟 is on cheques and contracts.

Frequently asked questions

How do you write 1,000 in Japanese?

1,000 is written 千 in kanji and せん in hiragana. In romaji (modified Hepburn) it is sen.

What is 1,000 in hiragana?

1,000 in hiragana is せん. Hiragana spells out the reading sen phonetically; the kanji form is 千.

What is the formal (daiji) form of 1,000?

The daiji form of 1,000 is 仟. Daiji are elaborate kanji used on cheques, contracts, and official documents to stop anyone altering the simpler 千.

Related numbers

100

hyaku

10,000

一万

ichi-man

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