By the numbers

In Japanese, the number 4 has the same pronunciation as "shi", which also means "death". Also, the number 9 is pronounced as "ku", which means pain as well in Japanese. Thus, it is often seen that hospitals do not have 4th or 9th floors. Also, there are a few years in life called "yaku-doshi”, meaning "evil years". They occur at different times for men (25, 42, and 60) and women (19 and 33). However, these years are calculated from before birth using an old Chinese method.