•
11 can be read as "wan-wan", which is commonly used in Japan as an onomatopoeia for a dog barking. •
16 can be read as "hi-ro",
Hiro being a common Japanese given name, as well as sounding like the English word "
hero". •
26 can be read as "fu-ro" (), meaning "bath".
Public baths in Japan have reduced entry fees on the 26th day of every month. •
29 can be read as "ni-ku" (), meaning "
meat".
Restaurants and
grocery stores have special offers on the 29th day of every month. •
39 can be read as "san-kyū", referring to "thank you" in English. • It can also be read as the common girls' name "Miku", as seen in
Hatsune Miku example, below. •
44 can be read as "yo-yo" and is thus a common slang term in the international competitive
yo-yo community, which has a strong Japanese presence. •
56, read as "ko-ro", is used in , an alternate spelling of the verb "korosu" (, to kill) used as
algospeak on the internet to avoid
wordfilters. •
89 can be read as "ha-gu", which refers to "hug" in English. August 9 is National Hug Day in Japan. •
109 can be read as "tō-kyū". The
109 department store in
Shibuya,
Tokyo is often read as "ichi-maru-kyū", but the number 109 was selected as the alternative reading "tō-kyū" is a reference to
Tokyu Corporation, the group that owns the building. •
428 can be read as "shi-bu-ya", referring to the
Shibuya area of
Tokyo, and "yo-tsu-ba" () meaning
four-leaf clover. •
526 can be read as "ko-ji-ro" in reference to
Sasaki Kojiro, a samurai from the Edo period. •
634 can be read as "mu-sa-shi". The
Tokyo Skytree's height was intentionally set at 634 meters so it would sound like
Musashi Province, an old name for the area in which the building stands. •
801 can be read as "ya-o-i" or
yaoi, a genre of homoerotic manga typically aimed at women. •
893 can be read as "ya-ku-za" () or "
yakuza". It is traditionally a bad omen for a student to receive this candidate number for an
exam. •
4649 can be read as "yo-ro-shi-ku" (), meaning "best regards".
Mnemonics •
1492, the year of
Columbus' first voyage to America, can be read as "i-yo-ku-ni" and appended with "ga mieta" to form the phrase "Alright! I can see land!" (). Additionally, "i-yo-ku-ni" itself could simply be interpreted as "It's a good country" (). The alternative reading "i-shi-ku-ni" is also used to memorize the year, though it is not typically associated with a particular meaning. •
23564, the length of a
sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds), can be read as "ni-san-go-ro-shi", which sounds similar to "nii-san koroshi" () or in English, "
killing one's older brother". •
3.14159265, the first nine digits of
pi, can be read as "san-i-shi-i-ko-ku-ni-mu-kou" (), meaning "an obstetrician faces towards a foreign country". •
42.195, the length of a
marathon course in kilometres, can be read as "shi-ni-i-ku-go" ( go), meaning "go to die, go".
Popular culture examples Anime, manga, and television •
123 can be read as "hi-fu-mi", which the name of Hifumi Izanami in the music anime
HYPNOSISMIC -D.R.B.-, as well as Hifumi Suu - a character from
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You who is heavily associated and in love with numbers - is derived from. • Furthermore, her birthday is on 1/23, and Chapter 123 was her introductory chapter. •
152 can be read as "hi-ko-ni", meaning , and is part of the
license plate number of the Machine
itasha in
Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger. •
18782 + 18782 = 37564 can be read as "i-ya-na-ya-tsu + i-ya-na-ya-tsu = mi-na-go-ro-shi" . • In
Initial D, Rin Hojo's R32
Nissan Skyline GT-R has the license plate number "37-564", befitting his nickname of "
Shinigami". • In
Taiko no Tatsujin, a rhythm game, there is a song called 万戈イム一一ノ十 (成仏2000, Joubutsu 2000) where the lyrics "trois sept cinq six quatre" (3-7-5-6-4 in French) is sung multiple times. •
25 can be read as "ni-ko", referring to the character Nico Yazawa from
Love Live! School Idol Project, who wears a wristband with that number. Her brother, Cotaro Yazawa, also wears a shirt with that number. •
25252 can be read as "ni-ko-ni-ko-ni", referring to Nico's catchphrase "Nico Nico Ni". •
29 can be read as "ni-ka", which is the name of a sun god in
One Piece, and it represents the power of the protagonist •
315, or "sa-i-go", is used as a transformation code in
Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost due to being pronounced similarly to "
Psyga". •
428, read as "yo-tsu-ba", can refer to the character Yotsuba Nakano from
The Quintessential Quintuplets, who wears
T-shirts with that number. •
4696 can be read as "yo-ru-ku-ra", which refers to the anime series "
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night". •
4869 can be read as "shi-ya-ro-ku" (); when "ya" is
written small, it becomes "sharoku" (), which resembles . This number is
Conan Edogawa's phone
PIN and the name of an experimental drug in
Case Closed. •
5, read as "go", can refer to the board game
go. In both the manga
Hikaru no Go and its anime adaptation, the go-playing protagonist Hikaru Shindo often wears T-shirts with the number 5 on the front. •
5106 can be read as "go-ji-ra", which is the Japanese name of
Godzilla. •
551 can be read as "go-ka-i", which is the name of the 35th season of
Super Sentai,
Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, as well, the code for the Gokai Galleon is 5501, which is similar to 551. •
56 can be read as "go-mu", meaning , referring to
One Piece protagonist
Monkey D. Luffy's elastic abilities. •
564 can be read as "go-ru-shi", which can be interpreted as , Gold Ship's nickname from
Umamusume: Pretty Derby. •
5710 can be read as "ko-na-ta" referring to the character
Konata Izumi from the manga and anime
Lucky Star. •
59 can be read as "go-ku" and is sometimes used in reference to
Goku from
Dragon Ball. •
63 can be read as "mu-zan" or "miserable", which refers to
Muzan Kibutsuji, the
main antagonist of
Demon Slayer. The official
Demon Slayer Twitter account refers to June 3 as "Muzan Day". •
723 can be read as "na-tsu-mi" or
Natsumi and is commonly used in
Sgt. Frog to symbolically refer to the character
Natsumi Hinata. • July 23 (7/23) is the birthday of
Date A Live character
Natsumi Kyouno. •
819 can be read as "ha-i-kyū" (), meaning
volleyball. The community around the anime series
Haikyu!! considers 19 August (8/19) to be "Haikyu!! Day". •
861 can be read as "ha-ru-hi", referring to the character
Haruhi Suzumiya as well as the franchise of the same name. •
86239 can be read as "hachi-roku-ni-san-kyū", used in
Initial D as the license plate number of a
Toyota 86. It translates to "thank you,
Eight-Six". •
874 can be read as "ha-na-yo", in reference to the character Hanayo Koizumi from the
Love Live! series. •
89 years can be read as "ya-ku-sai". This is homophonous with the Japanese word for "calamity" (厄災 yakusai), being a fitting age for the
JoJolion character Satoru Akefu, who has a calamity related ability. •
913 can be read as "ka-i-sa", as in
Kamen Rider Kaixa, hence it being the transformation activation code. • An anagram of this is
193, read as "i-ku-sa" (as in
Kamen Rider IXA), which serves as the code to activate Rising Mode.
Music •
10969 can be read as "wan-ō-ku-ro-ku", used by the rock band
One Ok Rock. •
32, read as "sa-tsu", is often substituted into the name of
Vocaloid producer Satsuki (32ki), known for his song
Mesmerizer, including in social media handles and the name of his YouTube channel. Similarly but unrelatedly,
23, read as "tsu-mi", is used in the name of fellow producer Tsumiki (23ki). •
345 can be read as "mi-yo-ko", used by Miyoko Nakamura, the bass player of the rock band
Ling Tosite Sigure. •
373, read as "mi-na-mi", is used by
Minami on her logo and social handles. •
39 can be read as "mi-ku", usually in reference to the
Vocaloid character
Hatsune Miku. Miku Kobato of
Band-Maid uses it too, and her signature
Zemaitis guitar has a truss rod cover with the numbers 5810 and 39, which mean "Kobato" and "Miku" respectively. •
569 can be read as the English "
Go Rock", used by
569 (album) by the band
GO!GO!7188 •
524-773 can be read as "ko-ni-shi na-na-mi" and is part of the self-introduction of
Hinatazaka46 member Nanami Konishi. •
610 can be read as "ro-ten" or "rotten", and is often used on merchandise of the rock band
ROTTENGRAFFTY. •
712 can be read as "na-i-fu" (i.e.
knife), and is used in the
Shonen Knife album
712. •
75, read as "na-ko", is used by
Nako Yabuki in her
Instagram and Twitter handles. •
910 can be read as kyū-tō", used by the Jpop group
C-ute. On June 29, 2013 the group received an official certification from the Japan Anniversary Council making September 10 (9/10), known as "°C-uteの日" ("°C-ute no Hi"; "°C-ute's Day"), a national day. •
96 can be read as "ku-ro" meaning "black". is a popular Japanese singer who
covers songs on Niconico, and provides the singing voice of Tsukimi Eiko in
Ya Boy Kongming!.
Video games •
014029 can be read as , meaning "delicious meat". In the Japanese version of
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, "おいしー おにく" is used as a mnemonic for this number, which is a passcode that is required to progress in the game. •
193, when read as "i-ku-san" and interpreted to mean "Iku
-san", can refer to
Touhou Project character
Iku Nagae, or
IJN submarine I-19 in
Kantai Collection. •
2424 can be read as
Puyo Puyo. This numerical correspondence has been used and referenced ever since the series' debut, and has also been used in various teasers for some of the games. The series celebrated its 24th anniversary in 2015. •
283 can be read as "tsu-ba-sa" (), meaning "
wing". This is used for the name of the 283 Production agency in
THE iDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors. •
315 can be read as "sa-i-kō" (), meaning "highest", "supreme", or "ultimate". This is used as the name for 315 Production in
The Idolmaster SideM, where the idols under the label use "saikō" as a rallying chant. •
34 is a frequent target of goroawase in the mystery franchise
When They Cry, often being the name of the culprit or an accomplice, such as Miyo () in
Higurashi When They Cry, Sayo () in
Umineko When They Cry, and Mitsuyo in
Ciconia When They Cry. •
346 can be read as "mi-shi-ro", meaning "beautiful castle". This is used for the name of 346 Production in
THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls. •
51 can be read as "go-ichi". These two numbers are the latter part of "SUDA51", the alias of
Goichi Suda. •
573 can be read as "ko-na-mi" and is often used by
Konami; for example, it is used in Konami telephone numbers and as a high score in Konami games, as well as in promotional materials, sometimes as a character name, and for the Konami code in mobile games replacing the lettered buttons. •
.59 can be read as "ten-go-ku" (), meaning "
heaven" (an example being the song ".59" in
Beatmania IIDX 2nd Style and
Dance Dance Revolution 4thMix). •
616 can be read as "ro-i-ro", referring to lowiro, the developer and publisher of the rhythm game
Arcaea. •
765 can be read as "na-mu-ko" or
Namco. Derivatives of this number can be found in dozens of Namco-produced video games. For example, it is Pac-Man's house number in
Pac-Man World. It was also the central studio of
The Idolmaster and its sequels. • After merging with
Bandai, their goroawase number became
876 (ba-na-mu); the handle of
Bandai Namco Games' Japanese
Twitter account is "@bnei876". •
86 can be read as "ha-ru" or HAL.
HAL Laboratory often puts this number somewhere in the video games it creates as parts of secrets and
easter eggs, most notably in the
Kirby series. • In
Pokémon Sword and Shield, all Gym Leaders and some extra characters have a three-digit jersey number that relates to their name, role, or typing they specialize in. For example, Opal has the jersey number
910, which can be read as "kyu-to" or
cute, relating to her specialization in Fairy-type Pokémon.
Other •
15 can be read as "ichi-go" and is commonly used to refer to
strawberries ("ichigo"). Equipping the front end of a
Nissan Silvia S15 onto another
S-chassis car is sometimes referred to as "strawberry face" conversion in English. •
23 can be read as "ni-san". Car manufacturer
Nissan frequently enters
cars with the number 23 into
motorsports events. •
326 can be read as "Mitsuru" in the company name 326POWER, referring to the owner of the company "Haruguchi Mitsuru". •
230 can be read as "fu-mi-o", the given name of former Japanese prime minister
Fumio Kishida. He uses this number in his X (formerly Twitter) handle "kishida230". •
2434 can be read as "ni-ji-san-ji", which refers to the
virtual YouTuber agency
Nijisanji. Some Japanese members of the company use this number in their Twitter handles. •
2525 can be read as "ni-ko-ni-ko" () and refers to
Niconico, a Japanese
online video platform. Its "mylists", which function similarly to lists of
bookmarks (or YouTube playlists), are limited to 25 per user. •
262 can be read as "ji-mu-ni", referring to the
Suzuki Jimny sports utility vehicle. •
386 can be read as "su-ba-ru". Japanese automaker
Subaru uses 386 in its parts numbers. •
510, read as "go-tō", is used by
professional wrestler Hirooki Goto in his Twitter handle. •
563 can be read as "ko-ro-san" (); amounts of 563 yen are commonly donated to virtual YouTuber
Inugami Korone of
Hololive Production, who is sometimes referred to as "Koro-san". • Hololive founder Motoaki "YAGOO" Tanigo's nickname is occasionally represented with the number
85 ("ya-go") or
850 ("ya-go-ō"). •
870 can be read as "ha-na-wa", which could refer to either
Hanawa, Fukushima, or a garland. •
622 can be read as "ra-bu-bu" (ラブブ), which could refer to the popular plushie
Labubu. •
69 can be read as "ro-ki", as in Hi69 ("Hiroki"), one of the
ring names of professional wrestler
Hiroki Tanabe. ==See also==