5 in Japanese
五
Updated June 2026
5 in Japanese is 五, written ご in hiragana and read go. Go: the five-yen coin of good fortune
NUMERAL
5
KANJI
五
HIRAGANA
ご
ROMAJI
go
Counter-attached forms
How 5 attaches to common counters. Each links to the per-counter deep-dive.
Cultural context
The five-yen coin (五円, go-en) is Japan’s luckiest piece of money, because 五円 is a homophone of ご縁 (go-en, "a good connection" or "fate"). A 5-yen coin is the traditional offering thrown into the box (o-saisen) at a shrine to pray for good relationships. Five is also part of the lucky odd set 3-5-7. Source: Wikipedia "Japanese superstitions" and "Japanese five-yen coin".
Daiji formal form (for cheques and contracts)
Real sentence examples
五円玉をお賽銭に入れました (go-en-dama o o-saisen ni iremashita): I put a five-yen coin in the offering box.
五時に会いましょう (go-ji ni aimashō): let’s meet at 5 o’clock.
Pronunciation and morphology notes
Five is go, and it is completely regular across every counter: go-nin, go-hon, go-mai, go-ko, go-hiki, go-sai, go-en, go-ji. No rendaku, no gemination. The general native form is itsutsu (五つ). The daiji form 伍 (also seen in 伍長, "corporal") appears on formal documents but is rarer than 壱, 弐, and 参.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write 5 in Japanese?
5 is written 五 in kanji and ご in hiragana. In romaji (modified Hepburn) it is go.
What is 5 in hiragana?
5 in hiragana is ご. Hiragana spells out the reading go phonetically; the kanji form is 五.
What is the formal (daiji) form of 5?
The daiji form of 5 is 伍. Daiji are elaborate kanji used on cheques, contracts, and official documents to stop anyone altering the simpler 五.
Related numbers
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