What was the base for Japanese numbers?


I'm curious what the numerical base the Japanese used before their
introduction to the wider western world.

I've been taught in my Japanese language classes that they move the comma to a
different place (1'0000 rather than 1,000) but that's just a question of
notation and have learned that there have been a great number of loan words in
Japanese.

I'm curious what they used before they met the Portuguese, for example, in
1543.




You may wish to read [Japanese
numerals](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals). So 1'0000 is called
`万`, which is also used in Greek as
[myriad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad).

