4 in Japanese
四
Updated June 2026
4 in Japanese is 四, written よん in hiragana and read yon (also shi). Yon or shi: the unlucky kanji
NUMERAL
4
KANJI
四
HIRAGANA
よん
or し
ROMAJI
yon
or shi
Counter-attached forms
How 4 attaches to common counters. Each links to the per-counter deep-dive.
Cultural context
Tetraphobia: the reading shi sounds identical to 死 (death). Hospitals and hotels in Japan, China, and Korea often skip room 4. Gifts in sets of 4 are avoided. Yon is the preferred reading in counting and most contexts; shi survives in fixed compounds (shi-gatsu = April, shi-ki = four seasons, shi-kakkei = square). Source: Wikipedia "Japanese superstitions" and the NINJAL corpus on tetraphobia frequency.
Daiji formal form (for cheques and contracts)
Real sentence examples
四つ角で右に曲がってください (yotsukado de migi ni magatte kudasai): turn right at the four-way intersection.
四月の最初の日は新年度の始まりです (shi-gatsu no saisho no hi wa shin-nendo no hajimari desu): the first of April is the start of the new fiscal year.
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Four has two readings. Yon (native, four strokes in kanji is misleading - actually five strokes) is preferred when counting, and when attaching to most counters: yon-hon, yon-mai, yon-ko, yon-sai, yon-en. Shi survives in months (shi-gatsu = April), fixed compounds (shi-kakkei = square, shi-ki = four seasons), and the people counter (yo-nin, where the further contraction yo replaces yon). Time uses yo: yo-ji = 4 o’clock. Day-of-month is yokka. The daiji form 肆 is rare in modern use but appears in some traditional contracts.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 4 in Japanese?
4 is written 四 in kanji and よん in hiragana. In romaji (modified Hepburn) it is yon, also read shi in some contexts.
What is 4 in hiragana?
4 in hiragana is よん (or し). Hiragana spells out the reading yon phonetically; the kanji form is 四.
What is the formal (daiji) form of 4?
The daiji form of 4 is 肆. Daiji are elaborate kanji used on cheques, contracts, and official documents to stop anyone altering the simpler 四.
Related numbers
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