3 in Japanese
三
Updated June 2026
3 in Japanese is 三, written さん in hiragana and read san. San, with rendaku on the long-object and animal counters
NUMERAL
3
KANJI
三
HIRAGANA
さん
ROMAJI
san
Counter-attached forms
How 3 attaches to common counters. Each links to the per-counter deep-dive.
Cultural context
Three is broadly auspicious. 七五三 (shichi-go-san) celebrates children aged 7, 5, and 3, and the odd set 3-5-7 is the lucky group favoured for gifts and ceremonies, because odd numbers cannot be evenly divided and so symbolise a bond that will not split. 三度目の正直 (sando-me no shōjiki) is the Japanese "third time lucky". Source: Wikipedia "Shichi-Go-San" and "Japanese superstitions".
Daiji formal form (for cheques and contracts)
Real sentence examples
鉛筆を三本ください (enpitsu o san-bon kudasai): three pencils, please.
三時のおやつを食べましょう (san-ji no oyatsu o tabemashō): let’s have the 3 o’clock snack.
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Three is san, and it triggers rendaku (sound-voicing) on two common counters: san-bon (三本, long objects — hon voices to bon) and san-biki (三匹, small animals — hiki voices to biki). The rest stay unvoiced: san-nin, san-mai, san-ko, san-sai, san-en, san-ji. The general native form is mittsu (三つ). The daiji form 参 is the same kanji as in 参加 (sanka, "to participate") and appears on formal documents.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 3 in Japanese?
3 is written 三 in kanji and さん in hiragana. In romaji (modified Hepburn) it is san.
What is 3 in hiragana?
3 in hiragana is さん. Hiragana spells out the reading san phonetically; the kanji form is 三.
What is the formal (daiji) form of 3?
The daiji form of 3 is 参. Daiji are elaborate kanji used on cheques, contracts, and official documents to stop anyone altering the simpler 三.
Related numbers
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