Karate Terms in Japanese Part 1 – Counting in Japanese

This is the first of a series of posts on karate terms.

This series will give you an extensive list of karate terms that is sufficient to get you from a beginner to a very advanced level.

Karate instructors use karate terms in Japanese everywhere around the world so that there is consistency across dojos. If you move from one dojo to another or if you have the opportunity to train in Japan one day, you’ll be able to blend in straight away even with a very limited understanding of the language.

In a dojo, you will usually hear numbers being counted in Japanese, most commonly just from 1 to 10.

Below are the Japanese numbers from 1 to 100.

Content

1. Counting 1 to 10 in Japanese
2. Counting 11 to 20 in Japanese
3. Counting 21 to 100 in Japanese
4. Japanese counting video

Counting 1 to 10 in Japanese

These will be the hardest to remember. Thereafter, the numbers become easier to memorize because they all follow a pattern.

Counting 11 to 20 in Japanese

Eleven is ten one (juu ichi).

Twelve is ten two (juu ni).

And so on.

Counting 21 to 100 in Japanese

Twenty one is two ten one (ni juu ichi).

Twenty two is two ten two (ni juu ni).

And so on.

The same rule applies for numbers beyond 30, 40, 50 etc.

Japanese counting video

Below is an excellent video by Yuko sensei that can help you pronounce these numbers correctly if you are interested.