How to Say "Trillion" in Japanese

兆

chō

The Japanese word for trillion is 兆, pronounced chō.

兆 is used to express the number 10¹², or a million million.

Meaning: a million million, 1012 (num)

How do you pronounce it?

chō

In traditional Japanese divination, the term 兆 was used to describe the 'signs' of the heavens. This spiritual origin predates its widespread use as a precise mathematical figure for a trillion.
While English uses a scale based on thousands, Japanese counting systems group large numbers by powers of ten thousand, meaning a trillion is actually one hundred-hundred-million, or one hundred oku.
Beyond its use as a number, 兆 is used as a noun meaning 'omen' or 'sign' of something to come. If someone speaks of a 兆し (shirushi), they are referring to a precursor or a symptom of a future event.

タトエバに10兆例文があれば良いのに。
I wish Tatoeba had 10 trillion example sentences.
This sentence is useful for illustrating the use of 兆 with a large number.
Tatoeba #11254570 by sh5555, translation #12179751 by Album9505
日本の国内総生産は一兆円を超えました。
Japan's GDP has exceeded one trillion yen.
このビジネスの市場価値は数兆円です。
The market value of this business is worth trillions of yen.
彼は数兆円の借金を抱えています。
He has accumulated a debt of several trillion yen.
そのプロジェクトには1兆円の予算が必要です。
Sono purojekuto ni wa ichi-chou en no yosan ga hitsuyou desu.
That project requires a budget of one trillion yen.
宇宙には星が数兆個もあると言われています。
Uchuu ni wa hoshi ga suu-chou ko mo aru to iwarete imasu.
It is said that there are trillions of stars in the universe.

Yui and Ren are discussing the national debt on the news.

結衣 Yui

ニュースで国の借金が1000兆円を超えたって。
Nyūsu de kuni no shakkin ga sen chō en o koeta tte.
The news says the national debt exceeded 1,000 trillion yen.
蓮 Ren

えっ、兆っていう単位がもう信じられない数字だよ。
E, chō tte iu tan'i ga mō shinjirarenai sūji dayo.
What, the unit 'trillion' is already an unbelievable number.
結衣 Yui

本当に多すぎて想像できないよね。
Hontō ni ōsugite sōzō dekinai yo ne.
It's really too much to even imagine, isn't it?
蓮 Ren

どうやって返せばいいんだろう。
Dō yatte kaeseba ii ndarō.
I wonder how they will ever pay it back.

Sources

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