Page 315 - Basic Japanese

The old-fashioned way of expressing percentage in Japanese

is to use three different counters: -rin ‘.001 (0.1 percent),’ -
bu ‘.01 (1 percent);’ and -wari ‘.10 (10 percent).’ In-between

percentages are given by combining these numbers: niwari

sanbu ichirin ‘.231 (23.1 percent).’ To say ‘200 is 25 percent
of 800’ you say Nihyaku wa happyaku no ni-wari go-bu desu.

However, pāsento ‘percent’ is more commonly used in
modern Japanese. For example, the same sentence can be

said as:

Nihyaku wa happyaku no nijū go-pāsento desu.
200 is 25 percent of 800.

Other examples:

Kyō wa subete san-wari biki desu yo.
Today, everything is 30% off!

Kono kaisha no nijup-pāsento no shain wa tabako o

suimasu.
Twenty percent of the employees in this
company smoke.