Japanese money may seem a little like monopoly cash at first. Thinking in hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands takes some adjustment. Japan is notoriously expensive. Visitors to Japan may find their mouths gaping at the cash register or sheepishly scouring their wallets if not adequately forewarned.

Unlike American dollars and cents, Japan uses only yen to describe its currency. One yen is a tiny, nearly weightless coin. Ten-thousand yen comes in a crisp bill. Yen from one to ninety-nine is expressed with simply the number and the word for yen, en. The number words are similar to the terms used for hours and minutes introduced in Chapter 5. Something that is ten yen would be described like this: Kore wa juu-en desu. Something that costs thirty-five yen would be described like this: Kore wa san-juu go en desu.

Terms for Yen from 100 to 900

Note that hyaku (not ichi-hyaku) is used for one hundred yen and that three, six, and eight hundred are irregular. For six and eight hundred, the number word is slightly altered so that when combined with pyaku, a double consonant sound is created.

The smallest bill in Japan is for one thousand yen, or sen en (not ichi-sen). A 2,000-yen bill was introduced in the year 2001 with a scene from Kyooto painted on it. There is also a 5,000-yen bill and a 10,000-yen bill. When discussing thousands of yen, only three (san-zen en) and eight (hassen en) are irregular, but yon, nana, and kyu are still the proper forms for four, seven, and nine.

Man is the term used for the 10,000-yen denomination in Japanese. When packing your wallet to go out in Japan, it is preferable to have a man or two with you. Converted into American money, it may seem ridiculous to be carrying around two hundred dollars in your wallet. In Japan, however, a man goes quickly.

It may seem cumbersome to be speaking in such large denominations, but using regular number words plus the term man makes it simple:

This pattern can be used for a variety of things that cost anywhere between 10,000 and 99,999 yen:

To continue this counting pattern, 100,000 yen becomes juu-man, 500,000 yen is go-juu-man, and so on. 1,000,000 yen is referred to as hyaku-man.

10,000,000 (hopefully you'll never have to use it!) is issen-man.