The word '' Japan'' is an

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

names for Japan are Nippon () and Nihon (). They are both written in Japanese using the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

. During the third-century CE

Three Kingdoms The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the West ...

period, Japan was inhabited by the Yayoi people who lived in Kyushu up to the

Kanto region Kantō (Japanese) Kanto is a simplified spelling of , a Japanese word, only omitting the diacritics. In Japan Kantō may refer to: *Kantō Plain * Kantō region * Kantō-kai, organized crime group * Kanto (Pokémon), a geographical region in th ...

. They were called ''Wa'' in Chinese, and the kanji for their name can be translated as "dwarf" or "submissive". Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation, and officially changed the characters they used to spell the native name for Japan, ''Yamato'', replacing the ("dwarf") character for ''Wa'' with the homophone ("peaceful, harmonious"). ''Wa'' was often combined with ("great") to form the name , which is read as ''Yamato'' (see also

Jukujikun are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

for a discussion of this type of spelling where the kanji and pronunciations are not directly related). The earliest record of appears in the Chinese '' Old Book of Tang'', which notes the change in 703 when Japanese envoys requested that its name be changed. It is believed that the name change within Japan itself took place sometime between 665 and 703. During the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

, was gradually replaced by , which was first pronounced with the Chinese reading (on'yomi) ''Nippon'' and later as ''Nifon'', and then in modern usage ''Nihon'', reflecting shifts in

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

Early Modern Japanese was the stage of the Japanese language after Middle Japanese and before Modern Japanese. It is a period of transition that shed many of the language's medieval characteristics and became closer to its modern form. The period spanned roughly 2 ...

. Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on the Chinese name, probably (compare modern

Min Nan Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...

pronunciation ''ji̍t pún kok''). In the 16th century in Malacca,

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

traders first heard from Malay and

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

the names ''Jepang'', ''Jipang'', and ''Jepun''. In 1577 it was first recorded in English, spelled ''Giapan''. At the end of the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries came to Japan and created grammars and dictionaries of Middle Japanese. The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam has 2 entries: ''nifon'' and ''iippon''. Since then many derived names of Japan appeared on ancient European maps.

History

Both ''Nippon'' and ''Nihon'' literally mean "the sun's origin", that is, where the sun originates,Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al.'' (2005). "Nihon" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see'
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File
. and are often translated as the ''Land of the Rising Sun''. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastern position relative to China. Before ''Nihon'' came into official use, Japan was known as or . ''Wa'' was a name early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around the time of the

Three Kingdoms Period The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the We ...

. The Yayoi people primarily lived on the island of Kyushu to the

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island se ...

. Although the etymological origins of "Wa" remain uncertain, Chinese historical texts recorded an ancient people residing in the Japanese archipelago (perhaps Kyūshū), named something like *ˀWâ or *ˀWər . Carr (1992:9–10) surveys prevalent proposals for Wa's etymology ranging from feasible (transcribing Japanese first-person pronouns ''waga'' "my; our" and ''ware'' "I; oneself; thou") to shameful (writing Japanese ''Wa'' as implying "dwarf"), and summarizes interpretations for *ˀWâ "Japanese" into variations on two etymologies: "behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short'." The first "submissive; obedient" explanation began with the (121 CE) ''

Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...

'' dictionary. It defines as ''shùnmào'' "obedient/submissive/docile appearance", graphically explains the "person; human" radical with a ''wěi'' "bent" phonetic, and quotes the above ''

Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

'' poem. "Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese," Carr (1992:9) suggests "they transcribed Wa as *ˀWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance. Bowing is noted in early historical references to Japan." Examples include "Respect is shown by squatting" (''Hou Han Shu'', tr. Tsunoda 1951:2), and "they either squat or kneel, with both hands on the ground. This is the way they show respect." (Wei Zhi, tr. Tsunoda 1951:13). Koji Nakayama interprets ''wēi'' "winding" as "very far away" and euphemistically translates ''Wō'' as "separated from the continent." The second etymology of ''wō'' meaning "dwarf, pygmy" has possible cognates in ''ǎi'' "low, short (of stature)", ''wō'' "strain; sprain; bent legs", and ''wò'' "lie down; crouch; sit (animals and birds)". Early Chinese dynastic histories refer to a ''Zhūrúguó'' "pygmy/dwarf country" located south of Japan, associated with possibly Okinawa Island or the Ryukyu Islands. Carr cites the historical precedence of construing Wa as "submissive people" and the "Country of Dwarfs" legend as evidence that the "little people" etymology was a secondary development. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote ''Wa'' or ''Yamato'' "Japan" with the Chinese character until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it due to its offensive connotation, replacing it with "harmony, peace, balance". Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to refer to the country itself, often combined with the character (literally meaning "Great"), so as to write the name as ''Yamato'' () (Great Wa, in a manner similar to ''e.g.'' Great Qing Empire, Empire of Great Britain). However, the pronunciation ''Yamato'' cannot be formed from the sounds of its constituent characters; it refers to a place in Japan and, based on the specific spellings used in ancient documents (see also

Man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of thi ...

and Old Japanese#Vowels), this may have originally meant . 1988, (''Kokugo Dai Jiten'', Revised Edition) (in Japanese),

Tōkyō Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the H ...

, entry available onlin
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entry available onlin
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/span> Such words which use certain kanji to name a certain Japanese word solely for the purpose of representing the word's meaning regardless of the given kanji's

on'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

kun'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequen ...

, a.k.a.

jukujikun are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

, is not uncommon in Japanese. Other original names in Chinese texts include '' Yamatai country'' (), where a

Queen Himiko , also known as , was a shamaness-queen of Yamatai-koku in . Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220–265) and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler fo ...

lived. When ''hi no moto'', the indigenous Japanese way of saying "sun's origin", was written in

, it was given the characters . In time, these characters began to be read using Sino-Japanese readings, first ''Nippon'' and later ''Nihon,'' although the two names are interchangeable to this day. ''Nippon'' appeared in history only at the end of the 7th century. The '' Old Book of Tang'' (), one of the

Twenty-Four Histories The ''Twenty-Four Histories'' (), also known as the ''Orthodox Histories'' (), are the Chinese official dynastic histories covering from the earliest dynasty in 3000 BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century. The Han dynasty official Sima Qia ...

, stated that the Japanese envoy disliked his country's name '' Woguo'' (Chinese) (), and changed it to ''Nippon'' (Japanese; Mandarin Chinese: ''Rìběn,'' Toisan Cantonese'':''
Ngìp Bāwn
') (), or "Origin of the Sun". Another 8th-century chronicle, ''True Meaning of Shiji'' (), however, states that the Chinese Empress

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...

ordered a Japanese envoy to change the country's name to ''Nippon''. It has been suggested that the name change in Japan may have taken place sometime between 665 and 703, and Wu Zetian then acceded to the name change in China following a request from a delegation from Japan in 703. The sun plays an important role in Japanese mythology and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

as the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

is said to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and the legitimacy of the ruling house rested on this divine appointment and

descent Descent may refer to: As a noun Genealogy and inheritance * Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology * Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology **Pedigree chart or family tree ** Ancestry ** Lineal descendant **Heritag ...

from the chief deity of the predominant

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

religion. The name of the country reflects this central importance of the sun. The association of the country with the sun was indicated in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the

official history An official history is a work of history which is sponsored, authorised or endorsed by its subject. The term is most commonly used for histories which are produced for a government. The term also applies to commissions from non-state bodies includin ...

of the Sui dynasty.

Prince Shōtoku , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was the son of Emperor Yōmei and his consort, Princess Anahobe no Hashihito, who was also Yōmei's younger half- ...

, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called the emperor of Japan (actually an empress at the time) . The message said: "The Son of Heaven, in the land of the rising sun, sends this letter to the Son of Heaven of the land, where the sun sets, and wishes him well". Martin Behaim 1492 Ocean Map

The English word for Japan came to the West from early trade routes. The early

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

or possibly

Wu Chinese The Wu languages (; Wu romanization and IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] ( Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Zhejiang Provin ...

word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as ''Cipangu''. In modern Toisanese (a language in the

Yue Chinese Yue () is a group of similar Sinitic languages spoken in Southern China, particularly in Liangguang (the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces). The name Cantonese is often used for the whole group, but linguists prefer to reserve that name for ...

subgroup), 日本 is pronounced as
Ngìp Bāwn
' �ip˦˨ bɔn˥ which sounds nearly identical to ''Nippon.'' The Malay and

words ''Jepang'', ''Jipang'', and ''Jepun'' were borrowed from non-Mandarin Chinese languages, and this Malay word was encountered by

traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelled ''Giapan''.''The History of trauayle in the VVest and East Indies : and other countreys lying eyther way towardes the fruitfull and ryche Moluccaes. As Moscouia, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Aegypte, Ethiopia, Guinea, China in Cathayo, and Giapan: VVith a discourse of the Northwest passage. In the hande of our Lorde be all the corners of the earth''
Richard Jugge, approximately 1514-1577, page 493 In English, the modern official title of the country is simply "Japan", one of the few countries to have no " long form" name. The official Japanese-language name is ''Nippon-koku'' or ''Nihon-koku'' (), literally "''

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Japan''". From the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the full title of Japan was the " Empire of Great Japan" ( ''Dai Nippon Teikoku''). A more poetic rendering of the name of Japan during this period was "Empire of the Sun." The official name of the nation was changed after the adoption of the post-war constitution; the title "State of Japan" is sometimes used as a colloquial modern-day equivalent. As an adjective, the term "Dai-Nippon" remains popular with Japanese governmental, commercial, or social organizations whose reach extend beyond Japan's geographic borders (e.g., Dai Nippon Printing,

Dai Nippon Butoku Kai ''Dai Nippon Butoku Kai'' (DNBK, ja, 大日本武徳会, en, "Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society") was a martial arts organization with strong ties to WWII-era Japanese government, originally established in 1895 in Kyoto. Following the end of ...

, etc.). Though ''Nippon'' or ''Nihon'' are still by far the most popular names for Japan from within the country, recently the foreign words ''Japan'' and even ''Jipangu'' (from ''Cipangu'', see below) have been used in Japanese mostly for the purpose of

foreign branding Foreign branding is an advertising and marketing term describing the use of foreign or foreign-sounding brand names for companies, products, and services to imply they are of foreign origin. This can also be used for foreign products if the countr ...

Historical

missionaries arrived in Japan at the end of the 16th century. In the course of learning

, they created several grammars and dictionaries of Middle Japanese. The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam contains two entries for Japan: ''nifon'' and ''iippon''. The title of the dictionary (''Vocabulary of the Language of Japan'') illustrates that the

word for Japan was by that time ''Iapam''.

Nifon

Historically, Japanese has undergone a number of phonological changes. Originally *, this weakened into and eventually became the modern . Modern is still pronounced when followed by . Middle Japanese ''nifon'' becomes Modern Japanese ''nihon'' via regular phonological changes.

Jippon

Before modern styles of

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

, the Portuguese devised their

own Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

. In it, is written as either ''ii'' or ''ji''. In modern Hepburn style, ''iippon'' would be rendered as ''Jippon''. There are no historical phonological changes to take into account here. Etymologically, ''Jippon'' is similar to ''Nippon'' in that it is an alternative reading of . The initial character may also be read as or . Compounded with (), this regularly becomes ''Jippon''. Unlike the ''Nihon''/''Nippon'' doublet, there is no evidence for a *''Jihon''.

Nihon and Nippon

The

name for Japan, , can be pronounced either ''Nihon'' or ''Nippon''. Both readings come from the

Meaning

(''nichi'') means "sun" or "day"; (''hon'') means "base" or "origin". The compound means "origin of the sun" or "where the sun rises" (from a

point of view, the sun rises from Japan); it is a source for the popular Western description of Japan as the "Land of the Rising Sun". ''Nichi'', in compounds, often loses the final ''chi'' and creates a slight pause between the first and second syllables of the compound. When romanised, this pause is represented by a doubling of the first consonant of the second syllable; thus ''nichi'' plus ''kō'' (light) is written and pronounced ''nikkō'', meaning sunlight.

History and evolution

Japanese and were historically pronounced ''niti'' (or ''jitu'', reflecting a Late Middle Chinese pronunciation) and ''pon'', respectively. In compounds, however, final voiceless stops (i.e. ''p'', ''t'', ''k'') of the first word were unreleased in Middle Chinese, and the pronunciation of 日本 was thus ''Nippon'' or ''Jippon'' (with the adjacent consonants assimilating). Historical sound change in Japanese has led to the modern pronunciations of the individual characters as ''nichi'' and ''hon''. The pronunciation ''Nihon'' originated, possibly in the Kantō region, as a reintroduction of this independent pronunciation of into the compound. This must have taken place during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

, after another sound change occurred which would have resulted in this form becoming ''Niwon'' and later ''Nion''. Several attempts to choose a definitive official reading were rejected by the Japanese government, which declared both to be correct.

Modern conventions

While both pronunciations are correct, ''Nippon'' is frequently preferred for official purposes, including

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

, stamps, and international

sporting event Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, t ...

s, as well as the ''Nippon-koku'', literally the "''State of Japan''" (). Other than this, there seem to be no fixed rules for choosing one pronunciation over the other, but in some cases, one form is simply more common. For example, Japanese-speakers generally call their language ''

Nihongo is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been m ...

''; ''Nippongo'', while possible, is rarely used. In other cases, uses are variable. The name for the Bank of Japan (), for example, is given as ''NIPPON GINKO'' on banknotes but is often referred to, such as in the media, as ''Nihon Ginkō''.Nussbaum, "Nihon Ginkō" at Nippon is the form that is used usually or exclusively in the following constructions: *''Nippon Yūbin, Nippon Yūsei'' (

Japan Post Group is a Japanese publicly traded conglomerate headquartered in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is mainly engaged in postal and logistics business, financial window business, banking business and life insurance business. The company offers letters ...

) *''Ganbare Nippon!'' (A sporting cheer used at international sporting events, roughly, 'do your best, Japan!') *''Zen Nippon Kūyu Kabushiki-gaisha'' (

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had m ...

) *''

Nipponbashi is a shopping district of Naniwa Ward, Osaka, Japan. The area is centered along Sakaisuji Avenue, extending from the Ebisu-chō Interchange of the Hanshin Expressway in the south, to Nansan-dōri (just east of Nankai Namba Station) in the n ...

'' () (a shopping district in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

) *''

Nippon Kōgaku (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and Photography, imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cam ...

Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha'' (Japan Optical Industries Co. Ltd., (also called Nippon Kōgaku) which has been known since 1988 as the

Nikon Corporation (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, cam ...

since the Nikon brand name was used on its camera product line) Nihon is used always or most often in the following constructions: *''JR Higashi-Nihon'' (

East Japan Railway The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

JR Group The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as the or simply JR, consists of seven for-profit stock companies that took over most of the assets and operations of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. Mo ...

) *'' Nihonbashi'' () (a bridge in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

) *''Nihon Daigaku'' (

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

) *''Nihon-go'' (

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

) *''Nihon-jin'' (日本人) (

Japanese people The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は，旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来，現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島（南西諸島）に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Jap ...

) *''Nihon-kai'' (

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

) *''Nihon Kōkū'' (

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

) *'' Nihon-shoki'' (an old history book, never ''Nippon shoki'') *'' Nihonshu'' (日本酒; meaning 'Japanese wine') *''

Zen Nihon Kendō Renmei Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text=:ja:禅, 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a East Asian Buddhism, school of Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Ch ...

'' (全日本剣道連盟, abbreviated 全剣連 ''Zen Ken Ren''), the Japanese Kendo Federation referred in English as ''All Japan Kendo Federation'' (AJKF) In 2016, element 113 on the periodic table was named

nihonium Nihonium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Nh and atomic number 113. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable known isotope, nihonium-286, has a half-life of about 10 seconds. In the periodic table, nihonium is a transactinide ...

to honor its discovery in 2004 by Japanese scientists at RIKEN.

Jipangu

As mentioned above, the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

word ''Japan'' has a circuitous derivation; but linguists believe it derives in part from the

recording of the early

word for Japan: ''Cipan'' (), which is rendered in

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

as ''Rìběn'' (

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

: ʐʅ˥˩pən˨˩˦), and literally translates to "sun origin". ''Guó'' (

: kuo˨˦) is Chinese for "realm" or "kingdom", so it could alternatively be rendered as ''Cipan-guo''. The word was likely introduced to Portuguese through the Malay: ''Jipan''. Cipangu was first mentioned in Europe in the accounts of Marco Polo. It appears for the first time on a European map with the

Fra Mauro map The Fra Mauro map is a map of the world made around 1450 by the Venetian cartographer Fra Mauro, which is “considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography." It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame t ...

in 1457, although it appears much earlier on Chinese and Korean maps such as the ''

Gangnido The Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Ji Do ("Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals (of China)"Kenneth R. Robinso Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnidoin ''Imago Mundi'', Vol. 59 No. 2 (June 2007) pp. 177–192, via Ingen ...

''. Following the accounts of Marco Polo, Cipangu was thought to be fabulously rich in silver and gold, which in Medieval times was largely correct, owing to the volcanism of the islands and the possibility to access precious ores without resorting to (unavailable) deep-mining technologies. The modern Shanghainese pronunciation of Japan is ''Zeppen'' . In modern Japanese, ''Cipangu'' is transliterated as which in turn can be transliterated into English as ''Chipangu'', ''Jipangu'', ''Zipangu'', ''Jipang'', or ''Zipang''. ''Jipangu'' ( (''Zipangu'')) as an

obfuscated Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional or intentional (although intent u ...

name for Japan has recently come into vogue for Japanese films,

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s, etc.

Other names

Classical

These names were invented after the introduction of Chinese into the language, and they show up in historical texts for prehistoric legendary dates and also in names of gods and

Japanese emperors This list of emperors of Japan presents the traditional order of succession. Records of the reigns are compiled according to the traditional Japanese calendar. In the ''nengō'' system which has been in use since the late-seventh century, years are ...

: * ''Ōyashima'' () meaning the Great Country of Eight (or Many) Islands, '' Awaji'', ''Iyo'' (later

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

), ''

Oki Oki or Ōki may refer to: Places *Oki District, Shimane, a district in Shimane Prefecture, Japan *Oki Islands, an archipelago in the Sea of Japan *Oki Province, a former province of Japan *Ōki, Fukuoka, a town in southern Japan *Oki Airport, the ...

'', ''Tsukushi'' (later Kyūshū), ''

Iki IKI may refer to: * Internationales Kulturinstitut in Vienna * Iodine potassium-iodide, a chemical compound * Russian Space Research Institute originally known as IKI RAN * Iki Airport, IATA code Iki or iki may refer to: * Iki Island, a Japanese ...

'', '' Tsushima'', '' Sado'', and ''Yamato'' (later Honshū); note that Hokkaidō,

Karafuto Karafuto Prefecture ( ja, 樺太庁, ''Karafuto-chō''; russian: Префектура Карафуто, Prefektura Karafuto), commonly known as South Sakhalin, was a prefecture of Japan located in Sakhalin from 1907 to 1949. Karafuto became ter ...

Chishima The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

, and

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

were not part of Japan in ancient times, as Aynu Mosir (the northern part of the archipelago) was inhabited by a non-Japanese group, the Ainu. The eight islands refers to the creation of the main eight islands of Japan by the gods

Izanami , formally known as , is the creator deity A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God ...

and Izanagi in Japanese mythology as well as the fact that eight was a synonym for "many". * ''Yashima'' (), "Eight (or Many) Islands" * '' Fusō'' (), a mythical tree or a mysterious land located to the East of China. The term later became a poetic name of Japan. * ''Mizuho'' () refers to ears of grain, e.g. ''Mizuho-no-kuni'' "Country of Lush Ears (of Rice)." From Old Japanese ''midu'' > Japanese ''mizu'' ("water; lushness, freshness, juiciness") + Old Japanese ''fo'' > Japanese ''ho'' ("ear (of grain, especially rice)"). * ''Shikishima'' () is written with Chinese characters that suggest a meaning "islands that one has spread/laid out," but this name of Japan supposedly originates in the name of an area in Shiki District of

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

in which some emperors of ancient Japan resided. The name of Shikishima (''i.e.'' Shiki District) came to be used in Japanese poetry as an epithet for the province of Yamato (''i.e.'' the ancient predecessor of Nara Prefecture), and was

metonymically Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name ...

extended to refer to the entire island of Yamato (''i.e.'' Honshū) and, eventually, to the entire territory of Japan. Note that the word ''shima'', though generally meaning only "island" in

, also means "area, zone, territory" in many languages of the Ryūkyū Islands. * ''Akitsukuni'' (), ''Akitsushima'' (), ''Toyo-akitsushima'' (). According to the literal meanings of the Chinese characters used to transcribe these names of Japan, ''toyo'' means "abundant," ''aki'' means "autumn," ''tsu'' means "harbor," ''shima'' means "island," and ''kuni'' means "country, land." In this context, ''-tsu'' may be interpreted to be a fossilized genitive case suffix, as in ''matsuge'' "eyelash" (< Japanese ''me'' "eye" + ''-tsu'' + Japanese ''ke'' "hair") or ''tokitsukaze'' "a timely wind, a favorable wind" (< Japanese ''toki'' "time" + ''-tsu'' + Japanese ''kaze'' "wind"). However, ''akitu'' or ''akidu'' are also archaic or dialectal Japanese words for " dragonfly," so "Akitsushima" may be interpreted to mean . Another possible interpretation would take ''akitsu-'' to be identical with the ''akitsu-'' of ''akitsukami'' or ''akitsumikami'' ("god incarnate, a manifest deity," often used as an honorific epithet for the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

), perhaps with the sense of "the present land, the island(s) where we are at present." * ''Toyoashihara no mizuho no kuni'' (). "Country of Lush Ears of Bountiful Reed Plain(s)," '' Ashihara no Nakatsukuni'', "Central Land of Reed Plains," "Country Amidst Reed Plain(s)" (). * ''Hinomoto'' (). Simple kun reading of . The

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

(''Japan'') of the English word ''Japan'' is sometimes encountered in Japanese, for example in the names of organizations seeking to project an international image. Examples include (''Japan Netto Ginkō'') (Japan Net Bank), (''Japan Kappu'') (Japan Cup), (''Waiyaresu Japan'') (Wireless Japan), etc. ''Dōngyáng'' () and ''Dōngyíng'' () – both literally, "Eastern Ocean" – are

terms sometimes used to refer to Japan exotically when contrasting it with other countries or regions in eastern

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

; however, these same terms may also be used to refer to all of

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...

when contrasting "the East" with "the West". The first term, ''Dōngyáng'', has been considered to be a pejorative term when used to mean "Japan", while the second, ''Dōngyíng'', has remained a positive poetic name. They can be contrasted with '' Nányáng'' (Southern Ocean), which refers to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

, and ''Xīyáng'' (Western Ocean), which refers to the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

. In

and

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, the Chinese word for "Eastern Ocean" (pronounced as ''tōyō'' in Japanese and as ''dongyang'' () in Korean) is used only to refer to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

(including both East Asia and Southeast Asia) in general, and it is not used in the more specific Chinese sense of "Japan". In China, Japan is called ''Rìběn'', which is the

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

pronunciation for the

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

. The

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

pronunciation is ''Yahtbún'' , the Shanghainese pronunciation is ''Zeppen'' , and the

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

pronunciation is ''Ji̍tpún'' / ''Li̍t-pún''. This has influenced the Malay name for Japan, ''Jepun'', and the Thai word ''Yipun'' (). The terms ''Jepang'' and ''Jipang'', ultimately derived from Chinese, were previously used in both Malay and Indonesian, but are today confined primarily to the

Indonesian language Indonesian ( ) is the official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standardized variety of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia ...

. The Japanese introduced ''Nippon'' and ''Dai Nippon'' into Indonesia during the Japanese Occupation (1942–1945) but the native ''Jepang'' remains more common. In Korean, Japan is called ''Ilbon'' (

Hangeul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The ...

: ,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

: ), which is the Korean pronunciation of the Sino-Korean name, and in Sino-Vietnamese, Japan is called ''Nhật Bản'' (also rendered as ''Nhựt Bổn''). In Mongolian, Japan is called ''Yapon'' (Япон). ''Ue-kok'' () is recorded for older

speakers. In the past, Korea also used , pronounced ''Waeguk'' ().

Notation on old European maps

These are historic names of Japan that were noted on old maps issued in Europe. *, circa 1300 *「IAPAM」, circa 1560 *, 1561 *「IAPAN」, circa 1567 *「JAPAN」, unknown first year. *, 1595 *「IAPAO」, 1628 *「IAPON」, unknown first year. *「NIPHON」, circa 1694In the novel "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" published in October 1851, the notation "Niphon" appears when checking nautical charts. *「JAPAM」, 1628 *「YAPAN」, 1628 *, circa 1730 *, 1739

Emoji

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

includes several character sequences that have been used to represent Japan graphically: *. Japan is the only country with a map representation in Unicode. *🇯🇵, a sequence of

regional indicator symbol The regional indicator symbols are a set of 26 alphabetic Unicode characters (A–Z) intended to be used to encode ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country codes in a way that allows optional special treatment. These were defined by October 2010 as ...

s corresponding to JP that are often displayed as a flag of Japan.

Contemporary Non-CJK names

These are the contemporary Non- CJK names for Japan in different languages.

Notes

References

* *
OCLC 48943301
{{DEFAULTSORT:Names Of Japan Japanese language Japan Japan