Japanese Puzzle #1

Cool puzzle over at RocketNews24. My answer is after the jump.

I solved the puzzle this way: The value being assigned to the four-digit numbers has no obvious pattern; it also doesn't seem like the value is the result of having operators between the digits - this is unlikely because there's no way whole numbers would be produced out of every case. So, assuming each number arbitrarily has some value that then gets added up to become the value to the right of the equal sign:

• 1111 = 0
• 2222 = 0
• 5555 =0

That means '1,'  '2,' and '5' have a value of 0. That means we only need to find the value of '8' in '2581.' However, if we look at the values making up '8193':

• 1111 = 0
• 9999 = 4
• 3333 = 0

 So '1' and '3' have value equal to 0, and '9' has a value of 4 divided over four instances of '9,' or 1. So the value of '8' should be the value of '8193' minus the values for '1,' '2,' and '3': (3 - 0 - 1 - 0) = 2. So the value of '2581' is (0 + 0 + 2 + 0) = 2.