惑星 – The Planets in Japanese
There used to be 9, but now there are 8 planets in our solar system. Though the only planet you may ever visit is the one we are on now, it is good to know what to call them in Japanese. Let’s take a look.
Table of Contents
The Planets in Japanese
The planets in Japanese with their English translations are as follows.
- 水星 – Mercury
- 金星 – Venus
- 地球 – Earth
- 火星 – Mars
- 木星 – Jupiter
- 土星 – Saturn
- 天王星 – Uranus
- 海王星 – Neptune
- 冥王星 – Pluto
You can see that all the planets but Earth end in 星. This Kanji means basically planet or star. So, it’s kind of like a suffix for planets. Anyway, let’s take a further look at our planets individually.
水星 – The Water Planet
First we have the closest planet to the sun, Mercury. This is the smallest planet also after Pluto denominated as a planet. In Japanese Mercury is 水星, The water planet. The first character in 水星 is 水 which is the Kanji for water.
水星 should not be confused with 彗星. Both of these are pronounced the same but 彗星 means comet.
金星 – The Golden Planet
The golden planet as the name suggests, is the second plant from the sun. That is right, it is 金星 or as you may know it in English, Venus.
地球 – Ball of Dirt
地球 is made up of two Kanji, 地 meaning soil, ground, dirt, or, earth and 球 which means a ball or globe. This is the third planet and is the one we are on now, Earth.
火星 – The Fire Planet
火星 is the fourth planet from the sun. If we look at the Kanji 火 means fire. So, this is the Fire Planet in Japanese.
木星 – The Wooden Planet
Jupiter is next and is the Wooden Planet, or Tree planet. 木 is the character for wood or trees, hence the name for 木星.
土星 – The Dirt Planet
After Jupiter the next of our planets in Japanese is 土星. This is of course Saturn. The character 土 also means dirt, soil, or earth like 地 did in 地球.
天王星 – The Sky King Planet
天王星 is our seventh planet and is Uranus in English. 天王 can be broken into 天 meaning heaven or sky and 王 which means king.
So, this is actually a translation of the Roman God Uranus which is the Sky God.
海王星 – The Sea King Planet
Just like 天王星, our next planet 海王星 is also names after a Roman Deity. That is of course Neptune. This is the Roman God of the seas. 海 is the Kanji for sea or ocean and 王 again is king.
冥王星 – The Underworld Planet
Finally we have our last planet, Pluto. This is actually no longer considered a planet. But, that is ok as this is a language blog and not a science blog. Anyway, 冥王星 is Pluto in Japanese. Pluto is the roman god equivalent to Hades. 冥 is a not so common character that can mean afterlife, underworld, and so on.
Bonus! The Days are similar to the Planets in Japanese
The days of the week in Japanese also interestingly similar to the names of plants in Japanese. The order is not the same but just like fire planets, wood planets, water planets there are fire, wood, and water days! I explain all about it in the post below.
