The name of Japan in its own language is 日本, pronounced either nihon or nippon, alternate readings of kanji characters that mean “origin of the sun.” This was a name given to Japan by China in the 8th century A.D., since seen from that country Japan did seem to be where the sun started its journey across the sky. The two names are interchangeable, with nihon being used in everyday speech and nippon used in more formal situations, for example by lawmakers or the straight-laced newscasters on NHK, Japan’s version of the BBC. The first Westerners heard of Japan was through Marco Polo, who wrote about a strange country 1500 miles to the East of China called Cipangu, a place of great wealth where both temples and normal homes were made of gold, and where the people were very polite, although they had a strange custom of eating human flesh. The modern name of Japan has been filtered through many other languages, including traders in Malaysia (who called it Jepang), Manchuria (Zeppen), and the Portuguese (Iapan), first appearing in English as Giapan. For some reason, the Japanese have focused on the version Zipang as a cool, retro early word for their country, and this name is commonly found in books, video games, and an anime and manga series. Many Japanese companies use the 日 kanji as the starting point for their names, for example ニコン Nikon, which originally meant Japan Optical Engineering Company, and 日産 Nissan, which essentially means “Made in Japan.”
