Japanese Superstitions: From Lucky Cats to the Numbers 4 and 9
By Yoshi | Japan Unveiled
I want to begin with a question that seems simple but is not.
Do Japanese people believe in superstitions?
The expected answer — from a highly educated, technologically sophisticated society that has one of the highest scientific literacy rates in the developed world — would seem to be no. Japanese people are not generally characterised by credulity or by pre-rational belief systems. The same country that produces cutting-edge semiconductor technology, that has the world’s most punctual railway system, that has contributed significantly to the modern scientific literature in multiple fields — this country also has elevator panels that skip the number four, hospitals that avoid the fourth and ninth floors, and a specific social consensus that sleeping with your head pointing north is a bad idea because that is how the dead are laid out.
The honest answer: it is complicated. In the specific way that all human relationships with luck, fate, and the specific anxiety about the future are complicated. Japanese superstitions are not believed in the way that empirical facts are believed. But they are observed — partially, selectively, with a specific Japanese pragmatism that asks not “is this true?” but “is there any reason not to follow it?”
The answer to that last question — is there any reason not to follow it? — is usually no. And so Japanese people follow the superstitions, not necessarily because they believe the specific causal mechanism but because the cost of following is zero and the cost of not following, if it turned out to matter, would be real.
This is Japanese superstition: not credulity but specific rational hedging in conditions of uncertainty.
The Numbers: 4, 9, and Why They Are Everywhere
The most pervasive Japanese superstition — and the one most immediately visible to foreign visitors — is the avoidance of specific numbers.
The number 4 (shi — 四)
The number 4 in Japanese can be pronounced as shi — which is also the pronunciation of the character for death (死). This phonetic coincidence has produced a widespread avoidance of the number 4 that is genuinely embedded in Japanese built environment and commercial culture.
Elevator panels in Japanese hospitals, hotels, and office buildings frequently skip the 4th floor — or label it as 3A, or use the letter F. Hospital room numbers often avoid 4, 14, 24, and 44. Product packaging typically does not come in sets of four. Gift sets of four items are specifically avoided. The specific avoidance extends to combinations: 42 (shini — sounds like “to death”), 49 (shiku — sounds like “to be tortured in death”), and 43 (shisan — sounds like “stillbirth”) are specifically avoided numbers.
The avoidance is not universal or absolute. Many modern buildings do have fourth floors; many products come in sets of four. The superstition is observed selectively and with varying degrees of seriousness depending on context — a children’s hospital is more likely to avoid the number 4 than a parking garage.
The number 9 (ku — 九)
The number 9 is also avoided, though somewhat less consistently than 4. The character 9 can be pronounced ku, which is also the pronunciation of suffering (苦). The combination of 4 and 9 — 49 — is particularly avoided for combining both negative pronunciations.
Lucky numbers. The Japanese numerical superstition system is not purely negative — certain numbers are considered auspicious. 8 (hachi) is particularly lucky because its character (八) is wider at the bottom, suggesting expansion and growth. 7 has been adopted as lucky partly through Western influence but also has indigenous lucky associations. 3 and 5 are considered positive numbers.
The Lucky Cat: Maneki-neko and What It Actually Means
The maneki-neko (招き猫 — “beckoning cat”) — the white ceramic cat with one raised paw that appears in shop entrances, restaurants, and various business premises across Japan and increasingly internationally — is one of the most widely recognised symbols of Japanese culture internationally, and one of the most frequently misunderstood.
The misunderstanding: the maneki-neko is often described internationally as simply a “lucky cat” — a generic symbol of good fortune. This description is correct but ignores the significant specificity that the actual tradition contains.
Left paw vs. right paw. The paw that the cat raises carries specific meaning. A cat raising its left paw beckons customers and people — it is the appropriate maneki-neko for shops, restaurants, and places that want to attract visitors. A cat raising its right paw beckons money and fortune — it is more appropriate for personal luck. A cat raising both paws beckons both people and money but is sometimes considered overly greedy (the cat who raises both arms cannot protect themselves).
The color. The standard white maneki-neko is the most traditional and the most versatile. However, specific colors carry specific meanings: gold beckons wealth; black wards off evil and provides protection; red protects against illness; pink attracts love and romance; green promotes academic success; blue promotes peace and safety.
The origin story. Multiple origin stories exist for the maneki-neko, most set in the Edo period. The most commonly cited: a poor temple in Tokyo had a cat that raised its paw toward a passing feudal lord, beckoning him to enter. He entered, and moments later lightning struck the tree he had been standing under. The cat’s beckoning had saved his life, and he subsequently donated generously to the temple. The temple prospered, and the beckoning cat became associated with good fortune.
Sleep Direction: North Is for the Dead
The specific Japanese superstition about sleeping direction — that sleeping with your head pointing north is bad luck — is one of the more logically traceable beliefs in the Japanese superstition system.
In Japanese Buddhist funeral practice, the body of the deceased is laid with the head pointing north — kita-makura (north pillow). This specific orientation, derived from the specific position in which the Buddha is said to have died (lying on his right side with his head pointing north), became the standard funeral orientation in Japan.
The superstition: because the north-pointing position is specifically associated with the dead, sleeping in this position tempts death or attracts bad luck. The avoidance of kita-makura for living people is therefore not an arbitrary cultural convention — it has a specific and traceable origin in the overlap between the sleep position and the death position.
Most Japanese people observe this superstition at least partially — checking their bed orientation, avoiding north-pointing sleep when possible. Ryokan and hotel rooms are often designed to make north-pointing sleep difficult.
Chopstick Taboos
The taboos around chopstick use in Japan are more extensively codified than in most other Asian chopstick cultures, and several of them have specific superstitious dimensions rather than purely etiquette dimensions.
Tatebashi (立て箸) — standing chopsticks vertically in a bowl of rice — is one of the most strongly avoided chopstick behaviours in Japan. The specific reason: rice with chopsticks standing vertically is the specific funeral offering made to the dead. Performing this gesture at an ordinary meal invokes the imagery of death.
Watashi-bashi (渡し箸) — passing food from chopstick to chopstick — is also strongly avoided. The specific reason: the transfer of cremated bones from the cremation vessel to the funeral urn is performed using chopsticks, with family members passing specific bones between sets of chopsticks in a specific ritual. The gesture of food passing therefore replicates a specific funeral rite.
Mayoi-bashi (迷い箸) — hovering chopsticks over multiple dishes while deciding what to take — is considered rude but carries the additional superstitious dimension of indecision attracting bad luck.
Whistling at Night
The prohibition against whistling at night — yoru ni kuchibue wo fuite wa ikenai (you must not whistle at night) — is one of the more widespread and more interesting Japanese superstitions, with multiple origin stories and multiple explanations.
The snake explanation: whistling at night attracts snakes. This is the most pragmatic explanation — historically, the whistling sound was thought to attract snakes that might have entered or surrounded buildings at night, and the warning to not whistle at night was practical advice that accumulated supernatural weight.
The ghost explanation: whistling at night attracts the dead and other supernatural entities. The specific imagery is that the sound of whistling crosses the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead in a way that ordinary sound does not.
The thief explanation: whistling was historically used as a signal between thieves, and the prohibition against nighttime whistling may have originated as a warning to not accidentally signal criminal activity.
The modern observation: many Japanese people know this superstition and feel a specific unease when they or others whistle at night, even when they are fully aware that the specific causal mechanism described by the superstition is not real.
The Shoe Superstitions
Japanese superstitions about shoes and footwear reflect both the practical (shoes carry outside contamination into the home) and the supernatural dimensions of the indoor/outdoor distinction.
Never give shoes as a gift. Shoes as a gift are considered bad luck — specifically associated with the implication that you want the recipient to leave and not come back. The phonetic connection: the word sōzu (to give footwear) sounds like sōzu (to walk away from), creating the linguistic association.
Never wear new shoes at night for the first time. New shoes worn for the first time at night — specifically at a funeral — are bad luck. The superstition derives from the historical practice of the bereaved wearing new clothes and shoes to the funeral of a close family member, creating the association between nighttime new-shoe-wearing and death.
Shoes turned over are bad luck. Finding a shoe that has been turned upside down — with the sole facing up — is specifically ominous. The connection to the turned-over shoe placed at certain grave types creates the association between the overturned shoe and death.
Why Superstitions Persist in Modern Japan
I want to conclude with the honest observation that I began with: the persistence of superstition in a scientifically sophisticated society is not a contradiction but a specifically human phenomenon that Japan expresses with particular cultural specificity.
The Japanese approach to superstition is, in a sense, Bayesian. Given uncertainty about whether a specific belief is true, and given that the cost of following the belief is essentially zero, the rational response is to follow it. You do not need to believe that 4 causes death to avoid giving a gift of four items — the specific cost of avoiding is zero, and the specific social comfort of the recipient (who may take the number more seriously than you do) is real.
This pragmatic approach to superstition — follow it when it costs nothing, don’t follow it when the cost is significant — is characteristic of Japanese practical rationality more broadly. Japan is a country that simultaneously operates cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication facilities and places protective onmamori amulets in the factory entrance.
Both things are true. Both make sense in the specific context of a culture that has learned to take the universe’s uncertainty seriously while not being paralysed by it.
— Yoshi 🐱 Central Japan, 2026
Enjoyed this? You might also like: “Shrines vs. Temples: What’s the Difference?” and “The Art of Japanese Packaging: Why the Box Is as Important as the Gift” — both available on Japan Unveiled.
