Originally Posted by QF ExLurker
Actually, I think the reason is that one pronounciation is "onyomi" (Chinese pronunciation reading) and the other is "kunyomi" (Japanese pronunciation reading).
Strictly speaking you are correct, but what is unusual about 4 and 7 is that they usually use kunyomi even when all other numbers use onyomi (eg. ikkai, nikai, sankai,
yonkai, gokai, rokkai,
nanakai...). Shi/yon (4) is obviously the death taboo but shichi/nana (7) is probably mostly because it would be too easy to confuse with shi otherwise.
And yes, 9 is considered lucky in Chinese culture, but unlucky in Japan as
ku ( 苦 ) can also mean "suffering". This isn't observed as much though, and in general the Japanese are a lot less keen on numerology than the Chinese...