Names of Japan

The word Japan is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are () and (). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji .

Since the third century, Chinese called the people of the Japanese archipelago something like "ˀWâ" (), which can also mean "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 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, was gradually replaced by , which was first pronounced with the sound reading (on'yomi) Nippon and later as Nifon, and then in modern usage Nihon, reflecting shifts in phonology in Early Modern Japanese. Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on the Chinese enunciation of the name, and iippon. Since then many derived names of Japan appeared on early-modern European maps.

History

thumb|Cipangu (cited as ixola de cimpagu on the center-left) on the 1453 [[Fra Mauro map, the first known Western depiction of the island]]

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 the Chinese 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.

Wa

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 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 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 and Old Japanese#Vowels), this may have originally meant . 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 or kun'yomi, a.k.a. jukujikun, is not uncommon in Japanese. Other original names in Chinese texts include Yamatai country (), where a Queen Himiko lived. When hi no moto, the indigenous Japanese way of saying "sun's origin", was written in kanji, 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

The very first historically attested record of Nippon (日本) is found in an epitaph of a Paekche individual called (禰軍; 예군), believed to have been created around 678 that was discovered in 2011. The epitaph engraves the aftermath of the Battle of Baekgang where Silla and Tang alliance invaded Paekche and many of the refugees fled to Japan as Toraijins.right|framelessAccording to Chinese historian Lianlong Wang (王連龍), the characters of Nippon are referring to the kingdom of Paekche as Japan was referred to as Busang Kingdom (扶桑國). The sun plays an important role in Japanese mythology and religion as the emperor 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 from the chief deity of the predominant Shinto 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 of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, 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, on 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".

thumb|Cipangu described on the 1492 [[Erdapfel|Martin Behaim globe]]

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 Malay and Indonesian words Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun were borrowed from non-Mandarin Chinese languages, 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 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 "Nation of Japan". 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, 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.

Phonology

Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan at the end of the 16th century. In the course of learning Japanese, they created several grammars and dictionaries of Middle Japanese. The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam contains two entries for Japan: nifon or "where the sun rises" (from a westbound point of view—which includes lands west of the nation, 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.

Latest by the Meiji era and the promulgation of the first modern constitution the official name was "Empire of Japan" , which translates to "Empire of Great Japan" (wikt:大#Japanese| "Great", wikt:日本#Japanese| "Japanese", wikt:帝国#Japanese| "Empire"). Due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonyms "Empire of the Sun" and "Empire of the Rising Sun".

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).

Min Chinese languages still retain this pronunciation of 日本, such as Northern Min Nì-bǒ̤ng (Jian'ou dialect) or Fuzhounese Nĭk-buōng. In modern Toisanese, a Yue Chinese language, 日本 is pronounced as Ngìp Bāwn [ŋip˦˨ bɔn˥].

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, 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

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" ().

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; 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.

Nippon is the form that is used usually or exclusively in the following constructions:

Nippon Yūbin, Nippon Yūsei (Japan Post Group)
Ganbare Nippon! (A sporting cheer used at international sporting events, roughly, 'do your best, Japan!')
Nipponbashi () (a shopping district in Osaka)
All Nippon Airways (Zen Nippon Kūyu)
Nikon (Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō)
Nippon Animation
Nippon Ham
Nippon Life Insurance
Nippon Professional Baseball (Nippon Yakyū Kikō)
Nippon Steel (Nippon Seitetsu)
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (Nippon Denshin Denwa)
Nippon Yusen

Nihon is used always or most often in the following constructions:

JR Higashi-Nihon (East Japan Railway, JR Group)
Nihonbashi () (a bridge in Tokyo)
Nihon Daigaku (Nihon University)
Nihon-go (Japanese language)
Nihon-jin (日本人) (Japanese people)
Nihon Kōkū (Japan Airlines)
Nihon-shoki (an old history book, never Nippon shoki)
Nihonshu (日本酒; meaning 'Japanese wine')
Zen Nihon Kendō Renmei (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)
The Nippon TV network is called Nihon Terebi in Japanese.

In 2016, element 113 on the periodic table was named nihonium to honor its discovery in 2004 by Japanese scientists at RIKEN.

Jipangu

thumb|Another spelling, "Zipangri" (upper left), was used on a 1561 map by [[Sebastian Münster.]]

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: Cipan (), which is rendered in pinyin as Rìběn (IPA: ʐʅ˥˩pən˨˩˦), and literally translates to "sun origin". Guó (IPA: 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. Awaji, Iyo (later Shikoku), Oki, Tsukushi (later Kyūshū), Iki, Tsushima, Sado, and Yamato (later Honshū); Hokkaidō, Karafuto, Chishima, and Okinawa 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 and Izanagi in Japanese mythology as well as the fact that eight was a synonym for "many".

Yashima ( or ), "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 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 extended to refer to the entire island of Yamato (i.e. Honshū) and, eventually, to the entire territory of Japan. The word shima, though generally meaning only "island" in Japanese, 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), 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 transcription (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.

In other Eastern Asian languages

Dōngyáng () and Dōngyíng () – 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". 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, and Xīyáng (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 Far East (including both East Asia and Southeast Asia) in general, and it is not used in the more specific Chinese sense of "Japan".

In Mandarin Chinese, Japan is called Rìběn . The Cantonese pronunciation of "" is Yahtbún , the Shanghainese pronunciation is Zeppen , the Hokkien pronunciation is Ji̍tpún or Li̍t-pún, the standard Hakka pronunciation is Ngi̍t-pún and the Teochew pronunciation is Ji̍k púng . This has influenced the Malay name for Japan, Jepun, and the Thai word Yipun (). The terms Jepang and Jipang were previously used in both Malay and Indonesian, but are today confined primarily to the Indonesian language. 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 (Hangul: , Hanja: ), 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 Hokkien 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
「JAPAN」, unknown first year.
, 1595
「IAPAO」, 1628
「IAPON」, unknown first year.
「NIPHON」, circa 1694
「JAPAM」, 1628
「YAPAN」, 1628
, circa 1730
, 1739

Emoji

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

Contemporary names

These are some of the contemporary names for Japan in different languages.

{|class="wikitable"

!Language

!Contemporary name for Japan (romanization)

|Albanian

|Japonia

|Amharic

| (japani)

|Arabic

| (al-yābān)

|Armenian

|ճապոնիա (Chaponia)

|Azerbaijani

|Yaponiya

|Bengali

| (Japan)

|Basque

|Japonia

|Belarusian

|Японія (Japonija)

|Bulgarian

|Япония (Yaponiya)

|Cantonese

|Yat Bun

|Catalan

|Japó

|Cornish

|Nihon

|Croatian

|Japan

|Czech

|Japonsko

|Danish

|Japan

|Dutch

|Japan

|English

|Japan

|Filipino

|Hapón (from Spanish, Japón)

|Finnish

|Japani

|French

|Japon

|Galician

|O Xapón

|Georgian

|იაპონია (iaponia)

|German

|Japan

|Greek

|Ιαπωνία (Iaponía)

|Hawaiian

|Iapana

|Hebrew

| (Yapan)

|Hindi

| (jāpān)

|Hungarian

|Japán

|Icelandic

|Japan

|Indonesian

|Jepang

|Irish

|An tSeapáin

|Italian

|Giappone

|Kannada

|ಜಪಾನ್ (jāpān)

|Kazakh

|Жапония (Japoniya)

|Khmer

| (japon)

|Laotian

| (nyipun)

|Lithuanian

|Japonija

|Malay

|Jepun ()

|Malayalam

| (jappān)

|Maltese

|Ġappun

|Manx

|Yn çhapaan

|Marathi

| (japān)

|Mongolian

|Япон (Yapon)

|Norwegian

|Japan

|Persian

| (žāpon) in Iran and جاپان (jāpān) in Afghanistan

|Polish

|Japonia

|Portuguese

|Japão

|Quechua

|Nihun

|Romanian

|Japonia

|Russian

|Япония (Yaponiya)

|Scottish Gaelic

|Iapan

|Serbian

|Јапан (Japan)

|Sinhala

| (Japanaya)

|Slovak

|Japonsko

|Slovenian

|Japonska

|Spanish

|Japón

|Swedish

|Japan

|Tamil

| (Jappaan)

|Thai

| (yîi-bpùn)

|Turkish

|Japonya

|Ukrainian

| (Yaponiya)

|Urdu

| (jāpān)

|Vietnamese

|Welsh

|Japan (sometimes spelt Siapan)

|Xhosa

|Japhan

Notes

References

; OCLC 48943301

History

Wa

Nippon

Phonology

Evolution

Modern

Jipangu

In other Eastern Asian languages

Notation on old European maps

Emoji

Contemporary names

See also

Notes

References