ChiramiHow to say a million in Japanese (百万)
A million in Japanese is 百万 (hyakuman): 百, a hundred, times 万, ten thousand. Japanese groups big numbers in fours rather than threes, so it counts in ten-thousands (万, man) and hundred-millions (億, oku), and a million is simply “a hundred ten-thousands”.
What the kanji say
百 (hyaku) is a hundred. It’s 一, one, on top of 白, which was there for its sound.
万 (man) is ten thousand. It’s the short form of 萬, which began as a drawing of a scorpion. The number was borrowed for its sound, so the scorpion has nothing to do with counting.
億 (oku) is a hundred million. 亻 is a person, and 意 gives the sound; the number meaning is borrowed too.
Counting in fours
English groups digits in threes: thousand, million, billion. Japanese groups them in fours: 万 is 10,000, 億 is 100,000,000, and the next step, 兆 (chou), is a trillion.
| Number | In kanji | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 一万 | ichiman |
| 100,000 | 十万 | juuman |
| 1,000,000 | 百万 | hyakuman |
| 10,000,000 | 一千万 | issenman |
| 100,000,000 | 一億 | ichioku |
| 1,000,000,000 | 十億 | juuoku |
A trick for reading big numbers: mark off groups of four digits from the right. 1000000 becomes 100,0000, which you read as “100 man”: hyakuman. 25000000 becomes 2500,0000: 二千五百万 (nisengohyakuman).
How to use it
この車は三百万円です。
Kono kuruma wa sanbyakuman-en desu.
This car costs three million yen.
一万円札しかないんですが、大丈夫ですか。
Ichiman-en satsu shika nain desu ga, daijoubu desu ka.
I only have a 10,000-yen note. Is that OK?
宝くじで一億円当たったらどうする？
Takarakuji de ichioku-en atattara dou suru?
What would you do if you won 100 million yen in the lottery?
この動画は百万回再生されました。
Kono douga wa hyakumankai saisei saremashita.
This video has been watched a million times.
- Say 一万 (ichiman), not just man. 百 and 千 (sen) can stand alone, but 万 and 億 always need a number in front: 一万, 一億.
- Watch the sound changes: 三百 (sanbyaku), 六百 (roppyaku), 八百 (happyaku), 三千 (sanzen), 八千 (hassen). They carry over into bigger numbers, so 三百万 is sanbyakuman.
- A billion is 十億 (juuoku), “ten hundred-millions”, and a trillion is 一兆 (itchou).
- 万 turns up outside maths too: 万歳 (banzai) is literally “ten thousand years”, and 万一 (man’ichi), “one in ten thousand”, means “if by any chance” or “in the unlikely event”.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 百円 | hyakuen | 100 yen |
| 百貨店 | hyakkaten | department store |
| 一万円札 | ichiman-en satsu | 10,000-yen note |
| 万歳 | banzai | hooray, banzai |
| 万一 | man’ichi | if by any chance, in the unlikely event |
| 億万長者 | okumanchouja | multimillionaire |
Remember it
Think of 万 as a box that holds ten thousand. A million is a hundred of those boxes: 百万. Fill ten thousand boxes and you need a bigger word: 億.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.
百hundred
- On
- ヒャク hyaku · ビャク byaku
- Kun
- もも momo
- Strokes
- 6
- Level
- JLPT N5
Common word 百貨店 ひゃっかてん hyakkaten, department store
万ten thousand, 10,000
- On
- マン man · バン ban
- Kun
- よろず yorozu
- Strokes
- 3
- Level
- JLPT N5
Common word 万一 まんいち man'ichi, (unlikely event of) emergency; the worst(-case scenario)
億hundred million, 10**8
- On
- オク oku
- Strokes
- 15
- Level
- JLPT N2
Common word 一億 いちおく ichioku, 100,000,000; one hundred million