It is numbers which support the roots of human civilization. Numbers have a spirit which can understand the world, which can describe philosophy and which can even express the divine. In this thesis, both the cultures and the myths of Japan and China will be examined as will also the ways in which primitive Chinese characters for numbers are presented. It will ultimately be concluded that many fundamental Japanese and Chinese cultural differences can be better appreciated through their respective appreciation of the numbers ‘ONE’ and ‘TWO’.