Counting syllables. The haiku is a poetic form composed of three lines, containng 5, 7and 7 syllables. In Japanese... But in Japanese, it is time, perhaps equivalent to the musical beat, that is important, for a syllable can be be short or long. Thus a Japanese haiku is counted in terms of time or beats (onjii in Japanese), a standard beat being equivalent to a short vowel. For example, the word Tokyo seems to be composed of only two syllables, to and kyo, but each of them is long, and the word thus counts four beats - to-o-kyo-o .. a short vowel counts for one beat. a long vowel for two beats, a double consonant counts for one beat. the nasal consonant n at the end of a syllable counts for a beat. The reason why there are only 17 syllables lies in the duration of the utterance. A haiku is meant to be read aloud in a single breath.