We could also put it like this: we group our digits (our powers of ten, really) in clusters of three. After a thousand (three zeroes, 000), we have ten thousand (0,000), a hundred thousand (00,000), and then we've formed the next full cluster of three zeroes, 000,000, and we give that a special name: it's no longer tens or thousands of something, it's its own thing: a million.
In Japanese, bigger numbers get grouped in clusters of four. So, to them, ten thousand is not 10 x 1000, but its own thing: a 万. Not 0,000, but 0000. Then, what we call a hundred thousand, 00,000, is to them ten 万, so 0,0000. Same number, just split and conceptualised differently.
Moving on, our million is, in Japanese, not a thousand thousands, 000,000, but a hundred 万, 00,0000. (I think ミリオン is also a thing, but that's another discussion and I don't know enough about it.
If I'm not mistaken, a similar system, based on units of two zeroes instead of three, exists in India, but other users can give more informed examples.
Does that make more sense?
