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:''"Land of the Rising Sun" redirects here. For the national anthem of the former African state of Biafra, see "Land of the Rising Sun (national anthem)". For the article on the names of Japanese people, see "Japanese name"''. ''"Zipang"'' redirects here; for the manga series, see ''Zipang (manga)''; for the anime series, see ''Zipang (anime)''.
The English word 'Japan' is not the name used for their country by the Japanese themselves: it is an exonym. The Japanese names for Japan are 'Nippon' (にっぽん) and 'Nihon' (にほん). They are both written in Japanese using the Chinese characters '日本'. The Japanese name ''Nippon'' is used for most official purposes, including Japanese money, postage stamps, and international sporting events. ''Nihon'' is a more casual term and the most frequently used in contemporary speech.

Contents

History

Nihon and Nippon

Jipangu

Other names

Other East Asian nations

Notes

See also

History

Both ''Nippon'' and ''Nihon'' literally mean "the sun's origin", that is, where the sun originates, and are often translated as the ''Land of the Rising Sun''. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Japan had relations with China, it was known as ''Yamato'' and ''Hi no moto'', which means "source of the sun".^[1] ''Wa'' (倭) was a name early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around the time of the Three Kingdoms Period. Because the character originally used to transcribe the ethnonym ''Wa'' (i.e. 倭) acquired pejorative connotations, a different character, 和, which has more positive connotations, came to be used in Japan instead of 倭. Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to refer to the country itself, often combined with the character 大, literally meaning "Great", to give the name ''Yamato'' (大和). When ''hi no moto'' was written in kanji, it was given the characters 日本. In time, these characters began to be read using pseudo-Chinese readings, first ''Nippon'' and later ''Nihon''.
''Nippon'' appeared in history only at the end of the 7th century. ''Old Book of Tang'' (舊唐書), one of the Twenty-Four Histories, stated that the Japanese envoy disliked his country's name ''Woguo'' (倭國), and changed it to ''Nippon'' (日本), or "Origin of the Sun". Another 8th-century chronicle, ''True Meaning of Shiji'' (史記正義), however, states that the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian ordered a Japanese envoy to change the country's name to ''Nippon''.
The English word for Japan came to the West from early trade routes. The early Mandarin Chinese or possibly Wu Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as ''Cipangu''. The modern Shanghainese (a Wu Chinese dialect 呉語) pronunciation of characters 日本 (Japan) is still ''Zeppen'' [zəpən]. The Malay word for Japan, ''Jepang'' (modern spelling ''Jepun''), was borrowed from a Chinese language, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelled ''Giapan''.
In English, the official title of the country is simply "Japan", one of the few countries to have no "long form" name. From the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II, the full title of Japan was the "Great Empire of Japan" (大日本帝國 ''Dai Nippon Teikoku''). More poetically, another name for the empire was "Empire of the Sun". The official name of 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. The official Japanese title is ''Nippon koku'' or ''Nihon koku'' (日本国), literally "''State of Japan''".
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.

Nihon and Nippon

The Japanese name for Japan, 日本, can be pronounced either ''Nihon'' or ''Nippon''. Both readings come from the on'yomi.
日 (''nichi'') means "sun" or "day"; 本 (''hon'') means "base" or "root". The compound means "base of the sun" or "sunrise" (from a Chinese point of view, the sun rises from Japan); it is of course 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'' 日 plus ''kō'' 光 (light) is written and pronounced ''nikkō'', meaning sunlight. ''Hon'' in compounds also often changes to ''bon'' or ''pon''; h, b and p are closely related sounds in Japanese. There are therefore two possible pronunciations for 日本: Nihon or Nippon. While both pronunciations are correct, ''Nippon'' is frequently preferred for official purposes, including money, stamps, and international sporting events, as well as the ''Nippon koku'', literally the "''State of Japan''" (日本国).
Other than this, there seem to be no fixed rules for choosing one pronunciation over the other; in some cases one form is simply more common. For example, Japanese people call their language ''Nihongo''; ''Nippongo'', while grammatically correct, is never heard. In other cases, uses are variable. The name for the Bank of Japan (日本銀行), for example, is given as ''NIPPON GINKO'' on banknotes, but often referred to (in the media, for example) as ''Nihon Ginkō''.
'Nippon' is used always or most often in the following constructions:

★ ''Nippon-koku kenpō'' (Constitution of Japan)

★ ''Gambare Nippon!'' (A sporting cheer used at international sporting events, roughly, 'do your best, Japan!')

★ ''Zen Nippon Kūyu'' (All Nippon Airways)
'Nihon' is used always or most often in the following constructions:

★ ''Nihon-jin'' (Japanese people)

★ ''Nihon-go'' (Japanese language)

★ ''Nihon-shoki'' (an old history book, never ''Nippon-shoki'')

★ ''Nihon-bashi'' (日本橋) (Bridge of Japan, a bridge with same name but different reading in Tokyo and the surrounding oldest and largest commercial districts of the city)

★ ''Nihon-kai'' (Sea of Japan)

★ ''Nihon Kōkū'' (Japan Airlines)

Jipangu

As mentioned above, the English word "Japan" has a circuitous derivation; but linguists believe it derives in part from the Portuguese recording of the early Mandarin Chinese or Wu Chinese word for Japan: ''Cipangu'' (日本国), which is rendered in pinyin as ''Rìběnguó'', and literally translates to "country of sun origin". ''Guó'' is Chinese for "realm" or "kingdom", so it could alternatively be rendered as "Japan-''guó''".
Cipangu was first mentioned in Europe in the accounts of the travels of Marco Polo. It appears for the first time on a European map with the Fra Mauro map in 1457, although it appears much earlier on Chinese and Korean maps such as the ''Kangnido''. 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'' [zəpən]. In modern Japanese, ''Cipangu'' is transliterated as ジパング which in turn can be transliterated into English as'' Jipangu'', ''Zipangu'', ''Jipang'', or ''Zipang''. ''Jipangu'' (ジパング) as an obfuscated name for Japan has recently come into vogue for Japanese films, anime, video games, etc.

Other names

Another old name for Japan is ''Ōyashima'' (大八洲) meaning the country of eight islands. The eight islands refers to the creation of the main eight islands of Japan by the gods Izanami and Izanagi in Japanese mythology. Also ''Yashima'' (八島), ''Fusō'' (扶桑), ''Mizuho'' (瑞穂), ''Shikishima'' (敷島) and ''Akitsushima'' (秋津島）are the names to designate ancient Japan.
The katakana transcription ジャパン of the English word ''Japan'' is sometimes encountered in Japanese, for example in the names of organizations seeking to project an international image.

Other East Asian nations

''Dongyang'' (東洋) and ''Dongying'' (東瀛) – both literally, "Eastern Ocean" – are Chinese terms sometimes used to refer to Japan exotically when contrasting it with other countries or regions in eastern Eurasia; however, these same terms may also be used to refer to all of East Asia when contrasting "the East" with "the West." They have been considered to be pejorative terms when used to mean "Japan." They can be contrasted with ''Nanyang'' (Southern Ocean), which refers to Southeast Asia, and ''Xiyang'' (Western Ocean), which refers to the Western world. In Japanese and Korean, the Chinese word for "Eastern Ocean" (pronounced as ''tōyō'' in Japanese and as ''dongyang'' in Korean) is used only to refer to the Orient (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 ''Riben'', which is the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for the hanzi/kanji 日本. The Cantonese pronunciation is ''Yahtbun'' [jatpun], the Shanghainese (Wu Chinese) pronunciation is ''Zeppen'' [zəpən], and the Min Nan (Hokkien) pronunciation is ''Jit-pún''. In Korean, Japan is called ''Ilbon'' (일본/日本), which is the Korean pronunciation of the Sino-Korean name, and in Sino-Vietnamese, Japan is called ''Nhật Bản'' (also seen as Nhật Bổn).
''Ue-kok'' (倭國) is recorded for older Hokkien speakers. ^[2]

Notes

1. Teach Yourself Japanese Message Board
2. www.chineselanguage.org message board

See also

★ Japanese place names

★ List of country name etymologies

★ Names of China