The word japan in japanese

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You probably know that 日本 is the written word for “Japan” in Japanese. But do you know how to pronounce it? This is a question that’s asked by Japanese learners and even Japanese natives!

In Japanese, there are two ways to pronounce 日本, nihon and nippon. To find out which is “correct”, we need to look at the history of the word 日本.

History of the name of Japan in Japanese

TORII Kiyonaga, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Yamato – 倭やまと

Japan was not always called 日本. In fact, before the year 700 it was called yamato (倭やまと). During this time there wasn’t a clear concept of country in Japan. 

When outsiders from Korea and China visited Japan, they wondered what to call Japan. This is when it started being called yamato. 

The change from 倭やまと → 大和やまと

The original yamato (倭やまと) ,can be pronounced either yamato or wa, and also has the meaning of “dwarf”. Some theorists say that Japanese people were not happy with the name that was given and eventually changed it to 大和やまと (also pronounced yamato). 

Even today, Japan is still represented  by the name, 大和やまと, in certain cases. The word, 大和やまと撫子なでしこ (yamato nadeshiko) means an ideal Japanese woman with traditional values and strong character. The Japanese national women’s soccer team is called Nadeshiko Japan.

More commonly, the second character of 大和やまと, 和わ (pronounced wa), is used to mean “Japan”. This doesn’t appear as the official country name, but it is used in a wide range of words to mean something that is Japanese. 

For example, 和食わしょく (washoku – japanese food), 和菓子わがし(wagashi – japanese sweets), or 和室わしつ(washitsu – japanese style room) all contain 和わ(wa). 

How it changed to 日本

Although there are different theories, the change to 日本 likely happened because Japan wanted to establish their own concept of the country. The previous naming of yamato came from Chinese influence.

It’s said that it was Emperor Tenmu who started to use the word 日本. The earliest evidence of this word appears in the Book of Tang in the year 703. 

The naming of 日本 comes from the idea that Japan is the “land of the rising sun”. 日ひの本もと(hi no moto) means the origin of the sun. Because Japan is east of China, it would be the direction the sun would rise. The sun is also an important in Shinto religion, which has been a part of Japanese culture since ancient times.

Development of the two pronunciations, Nippon and Nihon:

The Japanese copied the Chinese way of pronouncing 日本, which sounded close to nippon at the time. This is how the word was widely pronounced.

During the Edo period between 1603-1868, the fast-talking Edo people started to blur the word into nihon. Since then, both pronunciations have coexisted.

Side note: Why is the country called “Japan” in English?

At this point, you might be wondering how the country name turned into “Japan” in English. Japan sounds nothing like nippon or nihon!

The name “Japan” may have come from Marco Polo’s accounts where he wrote the name for Japan as Cipangu. This likely came from the Portuguese pronunciation. 

The modern Shanghainese pronunciation of 日本 is also very similar to “Japan”, it is pronounced “zeppen”. This might have something to do with the origin of the word, but no one knows for sure.

What’s the difference between Nihon and Nippon?

Although both nihon and nippon are equally used in different situations, there are some patterns as to when and where each one is used. 

Unknown authorDuplicated by: kyu3 (124201) from Komaki, Aichi prefecture, Japan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Regional

The Edo period is when nihon developed as the second pronunciation for 日本. The capital of Edo is the modern day Tokyo. This is why the people of the Kanto region (where Tokyo is) tends to use nihon, but the people of Kansai (where Osaka is) tend to use nippon.

Nationalism

The other difference between the pronunciation is the nuance of nationalism. Nippon was used during the Empire of Japan which lasted from 1868 – 1947. 

During this time, the country was called 大日本だいにっぽん帝国ていこく(dai nippon teikoku), which literally means “the big empire of Japan”. Even today, the pronunciation of nippon tends to bring feelings of nationalism.

Age

Because of the association of nippon with the times of the Empire, the age range that uses nippon is usually the older generation. In more recent years, 61 percent of people say that they call 日本 as nihon. 

Examples of when you will see Nihon or Nippon:

As  you go through the list, you might notice that more nationalistic things or old company names tend to use nippon. In most textbooks today they teach nihon to foreigners because that is more common in daily life.

When Nihon is used：

日本にほん語ご – nihongo – Japanese language

日本にほん人じん– nihonjin – Japanese person

日本にほん海かい – nihonkai – Sea of Japan

日本にほん大学だいがく – nihon daigaku – Nihon university (a private Japanese university)

日本にほん橋ばし – nihonbashi – Bridge in Tokyo

When Nippon is used:

がんばれ日本にっぽん – ganbare nippon – Go Japan! (common cheer at sports games)

日本にっぽん一いち – nippon ichi – Number one in Japan

日本にっぽん銀行ぎんこう – nippon ginkou – Bank of Japan

日本にっぽん橋ばし – nippon bashi – Shopping district in Osaka

日本にっぽん放送協会ほうそうきょうかい – nippon housou kyoukai – Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)

So which is correct, do I say Nippon or Nihon?

You can choose whatever you prefer! However, it is more of a trend to use nihon especially for the younger generation. 

In an official release by the NHK the national broadcast company of Japan, they have said that their policy is to use nippon whenever it is talking about something official.

The Japanese government has talked about unifying the name of the country, but they have yet to reach a decision. For now, people can say both nihon or nippon and be correct!

I hope that this clears up any confusion about the two pronunciations of Japan in Japanese! Check out other articles on my Japanese language and culture blog like How to compliment women in Japanese or How to order food at a restaurant in Japanese

~ Tanuki

Japan 日本国 (Japanese) Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku
Flag Imperial Seal
Anthem:  君が代 Kimigayo «His Imperial Majesty’s Reign»
Government Seal
Territory controlled by Japan in dark green; territory claimed but not controlled shown in light green
Capital and largest city	Tokyo 35°41′N 139°46′E / 35.683°N 139.767°E
Official languages	Japanese (de facto)
Demonym(s)	Japanese
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Emperor	Naruhito
• Prime Minister	Fumio Kishida
Legislature	National Diet
• Upper house	House of Councillors
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Formation
• Imperial Dynasty established	February 11, 660 BC
• Meiji Constitution	November 29, 1890
• Current constitution	May 3, 1947
Area
• Total	377,975 km2 (145,937 sq mi)[1] (62nd)
• Water (%)	1.4 (2015)[2]
Population
• 2022 estimate	124,840,000[3] (11th)
• 2020 census	126,226,568[4]
• Density	330/km2 (854.7/sq mi) (44th)
GDP (PPP)	2022 estimate
• Total	$6.139 trillion[5] (4th)
• Per capita	$49,044[5] (36th)
GDP (nominal)	2022 estimate
• Total	$4.234 trillion[5] (3rd)
• Per capita	$33,822[5] (28th)
Gini (2018)	33.4[6] medium
HDI (2021)	0.925[7] very high · 19th
Currency	Japanese yen (¥)
Time zone	UTC+09:00 (JST)
Driving side	left
Calling code	+81
ISO 3166 code	JP
Internet TLD	.jp

Japan (Japanese: 日本, Nippon or Nihon,^{[nb 1]} and formally 日本国, Nihonkoku)^{[nb 2]} is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu (the «mainland»), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation’s capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Japan is the eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated and urbanized. About three-fourths of the country’s terrain is mountainous, concentrating its population of almost 125 million on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.2 million residents.

Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō) and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during which it adopted a new constitution.

Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. Japan is a developed country and a great power. It is a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations, G20, OECD, and the Group of Seven. Its economy is the world’s third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by PPP, with its per capita income ranking at 36th highest in the world. Although Japan has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as one of the world’s strongest militaries. Japan has the world’s highest life expectancy, though it is experiencing a population decline. A global leader in the automotive, robotics and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology. Japan is also considered a cultural superpower as the culture of Japan is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent manga, anime and video game industries.

Etymology

The name for Japan in Japanese is written using the kanji 日本 and is pronounced Nippon or Nihon.^[9] Before 日本 was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as Wa (倭, changed in Japan around 757 to 和) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato.^[10] Nippon, the original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is favored for official uses, including on banknotes and postage stamps.^[9] Nihon is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period.^[10] The characters 日本 mean «sun origin»,^[9] which is the source of the popular Western epithet «Land of the Rising Sun».^[11]

The name «Japan» is based on Chinese pronunciations of 日本 and was introduced to European languages through early trade. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the early Mandarin or Wu Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu.^[12] The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century.^[13] The first version of the name in English appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled the name as Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter.^[14][15]

History

Prehistoric to classical history

A Paleolithic culture from around 30,000 BC constitutes the first known habitation of the islands of Japan.^[16] This was followed from around 14,500 BC (the start of the Jōmon period) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture.^[17] Clay vessels from the period are among the oldest surviving examples of pottery.^[18] From around 700 BC, the Japonic-speaking Yayoi people began to enter the archipelago from the Korean Peninsula,^[19][20][21] intermingling with the Jōmon;^[21] the Yayoi period saw the introduction of practices including wet-rice farming,^[22] a new style of pottery,^[23] and metallurgy from China and Korea.^[24] According to legend, Emperor Jimmu (grandson of Amaterasu) founded a kingdom in central Japan in 660 BC, beginning a continuous imperial line.^[25]

Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han, completed in 111 AD. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje (a Korean kingdom) in 552, but the development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China.^[26] Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class, including figures like Prince Shōtoku, and gained widespread acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710).^[27]

The far-reaching Taika Reforms in 645 nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of taxation.^[28] The Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince Ōtomo, became a major catalyst for further administrative reforms.^[29] These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code, which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central and subordinate local governments.^[28] These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government that remained in place for half a millennium.^[29]

The Nara period (710–784) marked the emergence of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture.^[30][31] A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan’s population.^[31][32] In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital, settling on Heian-kyō (modern-day Kyoto) in 794.^[31] This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged. Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan’s national anthem «Kimigayo» were written during this time.^[33]

Feudal era

Japan’s feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai.^[34] In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura.^[35] After Yoritomo’s death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōgun.^[31] The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class.^[36] The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 but was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo.^[31] Go-Daigo was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336–1573).^[37] The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimyō) and a civil war began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period («Warring States»).^[38]

During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West.^[31][39] Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyō;^[40] his consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period.^[41] After the death of Nobunaga in 1582, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, unified the nation in the early 1590s and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597.^[31]

Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi’s son Toyotomi Hideyori and used his position to gain political and military support.^[42] When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. He was appointed shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern Tokyo).^[43] The shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto, as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyō,^[44] and in 1639 the isolationist sakoku («closed country») policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period (1603–1868).^[43][45] Modern Japan’s economic growth began in this period, resulting in roads and water transportation routes, as well as financial instruments such as futures contracts, banking and insurance of the Osaka rice brokers.^[46] The study of Western sciences (rangaku) continued through contact with the Dutch enclave in Nagasaki.^[43] The Edo period gave rise to kokugaku («national studies»), the study of Japan by the Japanese.^[47]

Modern era

The United States Navy sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to force the opening of Japan to the outside world. Arriving at Uraga with four «Black Ships» in July 1853, the Perry Expedition resulted in the March 1854 Convention of Kanagawa.^[43] Subsequent similar treaties with other Western countries brought economic and political crises.^[43] The resignation of the shōgun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the emperor (the Meiji Restoration).^[48] Adopting Western political, judicial, and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji Constitution (November 29, 1890), and assembled the Imperial Diet.^[49] During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as the most developed nation in Asia and as an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence.^[50][51][52] After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea and the southern half of Sakhalin.^[53][49] The Japanese population doubled from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million by 1935, with a significant shift to urbanization.^[54][55]

The early 20th century saw a period of Taishō democracy (1912–1926) overshadowed by increasing expansionism and militarization.^[56][57] World War I allowed Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to capture German possessions in the Pacific and in China.^[57] The 1920s saw a political shift towards statism, a period of lawlessness following the 1923 Great Tokyo Earthquake, the passing of laws against political dissent, and a series of attempted coups.^[55][58][59] This process accelerated during the 1930s, spawning several radical nationalist groups that shared a hostility to liberal democracy and a dedication to expansion in Asia. In 1931, Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria; following international condemnation of the occupation, it resigned from the League of Nations two years later.^[60] In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany; the 1940 Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis Powers.^[55]

The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).^[61] In 1940, the Empire invaded French Indochina, after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan.^[55][62] On December 7–8, 1941, Japanese forces carried out surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, as well as on British forces in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong, among others, beginning World War II in the Pacific.^[63] Throughout areas occupied by Japan during the war, numerous abuses were committed against local inhabitants, with many forced into sexual slavery.^[64] After Allied victories during the next four years, which culminated in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender.^[65] The war cost Japan its colonies and millions of lives.^[55] The Allies (led by the United States) repatriated millions of Japanese settlers from their former colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese Empire and its influence over the territories it conquered.^[66][67] The Allies convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders for war crimes.^[67]

In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution emphasizing liberal democratic practices.^[67] The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952,^[68] and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956.^[67] A period of record growth propelled Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world;^[67] this ended in the mid-1990s after the popping of an asset price bubble, beginning the «Lost Decade».^[69] On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes in its recorded history, triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.^[70] On May 1, 2019, after the historic abdication of Emperor Akihito, his son Naruhito became Emperor, beginning the Reiwa era.^[71]

Geography

Japan comprises 14,125 islands extending along the Pacific coast of Asia.^[72] It stretches over 3000 km (1900 mi) northeast–southwest from the Sea of Okhotsk to the East China Sea.^[73][74] The country’s five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa.^[75] The Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyushu. The Nanpō Islands are south and east of the main islands of Japan. Together they are often known as the Japanese archipelago.^[76] As of 2019, Japan’s territory is 377,975.24 km² (145,937.06 sq mi).^[1] Japan has the sixth-longest coastline in the world at 29,751 km (18,486 mi). Because of its far-flung outlying islands, Japan has the eighth-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 4,470,000 km² (1,730,000 sq mi).^[77][78]

The Japanese archipelago is 67% forests and 14% agricultural.^[79] The primarily rugged and mountainous terrain is restricted for habitation.^[80] Thus the habitable zones, mainly in the coastal areas, have very high population densities: Japan is the 40th most densely populated country.^[81][82] Honshu has the highest population density at 450 persons/km² (1200/sq mi) as of 2010, while Hokkaido has the lowest density of 64.5 persons/km² as of 2016.^[83] As of 2014, approximately 0.5% of Japan’s total area is reclaimed land (umetatechi).^[84] Lake Biwa is an ancient lake and the country’s largest freshwater lake.^[85]

Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic eruptions because of its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire.^[86] It has the 17th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2016 World Risk Index.^[87] Japan has 111 active volcanoes.^[88] Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century;^[89] the 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people.^[90] More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami.^[70]

Climate

The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate but varies greatly from north to south. The northernmost region, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers. Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter.^[91]

In the Sea of Japan region on Honshu’s west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall during winter. In the summer, the region sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures because of the foehn.^[92] The Central Highland has a typical inland humid continental climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter. The mountains of the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round.^[91]

The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind. The Ryukyu and Nanpō Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation is very heavy, especially during the rainy season.^[91] The main rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the rain front gradually moves north. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain.^[93] According to the Environment Ministry, heavy rainfall and increasing temperatures have caused problems in the agricultural industry and elsewhere.^[94] The highest temperature ever measured in Japan, 41.1 °C (106.0 °F), was recorded on July 23, 2018,^[95] and repeated on August 17, 2020.^[96]

Biodiversity

Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the Ryūkyū and Bonin Islands, to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter portions of the northern islands.^[97] Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife as of 2019,^[98] including the brown bear, the Japanese macaque, the Japanese raccoon dog, the small Japanese field mouse, and the Japanese giant salamander.^[99]

A large network of national parks has been established to protect important areas of flora and fauna as well as 52 Ramsar wetland sites.^[100][101] Four sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their outstanding natural value.^[102]

Environment

In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, environmental policies were downplayed by the government and industrial corporations; as a result, environmental pollution was widespread in the 1950s and 1960s. Responding to rising concerns, the government introduced environmental protection laws in 1970.^[103] The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged the efficient use of energy because of Japan’s lack of natural resources.^[104]

Japan ranks 20th in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index, which measures a nation’s commitment to environmental sustainability.^[105] Japan is the world’s fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.^[94] As the host and signatory of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan is under treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps to curb climate change.^[106] In 2020 the government of Japan announced a target of carbon-neutrality by 2050.^[107] Environmental issues include urban air pollution (NOx, suspended particulate matter, and toxics), waste management, water eutrophication, nature conservation, climate change, chemical management and international co-operation for conservation.^[108]

Government and politics

Japan is a unitary state and constitutional monarchy in which the power of the Emperor is limited to a ceremonial role.^[109] Executive power is instead wielded by the Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet, whose sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people.^[110] Naruhito is the Emperor of Japan, having succeeded his father Akihito upon his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019.^[109]

Japan’s legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament.^[109] It consists of a lower House of Representatives with 465 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and an upper House of Councillors with 245 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms.^[111] There is universal suffrage for adults over 18 years of age,^[112] with a secret ballot for all elected offices.^[110] The prime minister as the head of government has the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers of State, and is appointed by the emperor after being designated from among the members of the Diet.^[111] Fumio Kishida is Japan’s prime minister; he took office after winning the 2021 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election.^[113] The right-wing big tent Liberal Democratic Party has been the dominant party in the country since the 1950s, often called the 1955 System.^[114]

Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki.^[115] Since the late 19th century, the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. In 1896, Japan established a civil code based on the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, which remains in effect with post–World War II modifications.^[116] The Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947, is the oldest unamended constitution in the world.^[117] Statutory law originates in the legislature, and the constitution requires that the emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Diet without giving him the power to oppose legislation. The main body of Japanese statutory law is called the Six Codes.^[115] Japan’s court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts.^[118]

Administrative divisions

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor and legislature.^[109] In the following table, the prefectures are grouped by region:^[119]

Prefectures of Japan with colored regions	Hokkaido 1. Hokkaido	Tōhoku 2. Aomori 3. Iwate 4. Miyagi 5. Akita 6. Yamagata 7. Fukushima	Kantō 8. Ibaraki 9. Tochigi 10. Gunma 11. Saitama 12. Chiba 13. Tokyo 14. Kanagawa	Chūbu 15. Niigata 16. Toyama 17. Ishikawa 18. Fukui 19. Yamanashi 20. Nagano 21. Gifu 22. Shizuoka 23. Aichi
Kansai 24. Mie 25. Shiga 26. Kyoto 27. Osaka 28. Hyōgo 29. Nara 30. Wakayama	Chūgoku 31. Tottori 32. Shimane 33. Okayama 34. Hiroshima 35. Yamaguchi	Shikoku 36. Tokushima 37. Kagawa 38. Ehime 39. Kōchi	Kyūshū 40. Fukuoka 41. Saga 42. Nagasaki 43. Kumamoto 44. Ōita 45. Miyazaki 46. Kagoshima 47. Okinawa

Foreign relations

A member state of the United Nations since 1956, Japan is one of the G4 nations seeking reform of the Security Council.^[120] Japan is a member of the G7, APEC, and «ASEAN Plus Three», and is a participant in the East Asia Summit.^[121] It is the world’s fifth-largest donor of official development assistance, donating US$9.2 billion in 2014.^[122] In 2019, Japan had the fourth-largest diplomatic network in the world.^[123]

Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains a security alliance.^[124] The United States is a major market for Japanese exports and a major source of Japanese imports, and is committed to defending the country, with military bases in Japan.^[124] Japan is also a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (more commonly «the Quad»), a multilateral security dialogue reformed in 2017 aiming to limit Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region, along with the United States, Australia, and India, reflecting existing relations and patterns of cooperation.^[125][126]

Japan’s relationship with South Korea had historically been strained because of Japan’s treatment of Koreans during Japanese colonial rule, particularly over the issue of comfort women. In 2015, Japan agreed to settle the comfort women dispute with South Korea by issuing a formal apology and paying money to the surviving comfort women.^[127] As of 2019 Japan is a major importer of Korean music (K-pop), television (K-dramas), and other cultural products.^[128][129]

Japan is engaged in several territorial disputes with its neighbors. Japan contests Russia’s control of the Southern Kuril Islands, which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945.^[130] South Korea’s control of the Liancourt Rocks is acknowledged but not accepted as they are claimed by Japan.^[131] Japan has strained relations with China and Taiwan over the Senkaku Islands and the status of Okinotorishima.^[132]

Military

Japan is the second-highest-ranked Asian country in the 2022 Global Peace Index, after Singapore.^[133] It spent 1% of its total GDP on its defence budget in 2020,^[134] and maintains the ninth-largest military budget in the world.^[135] The country’s military (the Japan Self-Defense Forces) is restricted by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which renounces Japan’s right to declare war or use military force in international disputes.^[136] The military is governed by the Ministry of Defense, and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first overseas use of Japan’s military since World War II.^[137]

The Government of Japan has been making changes to its security policy which include the establishment of the National Security Council, the adoption of the National Security Strategy, and the development of the National Defense Program Guidelines.^[138] In May 2014, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe said Japan wanted to shed the passiveness it has maintained since the end of World War II and take more responsibility for regional security.^[139] Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea and China, have reignited the debate over the status of the JSDF and its relation to Japanese society.^[140][141]

Domestic law enforcement

Domestic security in Japan is provided mainly by the prefectural police departments, under the oversight of the National Police Agency.^[142] As the central coordinating body for the Prefectural Police Departments, the National Police Agency is administered by the National Public Safety Commission.^[143] The Special Assault Team comprises national-level counter-terrorism tactical units that cooperate with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads.^[144] The Japan Coast Guard guards territorial waters surrounding Japan and uses surveillance and control countermeasures against smuggling, marine environmental crime, poaching, piracy, spy ships, unauthorized foreign fishing vessels, and illegal immigration.^[145]

The Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law strictly regulates the civilian ownership of guns, swords, and other weaponry.^[146][147] According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, among the member states of the UN that report statistics as of 2018, the incidence rates of violent crimes such as murder, abduction, sexual violence, and robbery are very low in Japan.^{[148][149][150][151]}

Economy

Japan has the world’s third-largest economy by nominal GDP, after that of the United States and China; and the fourth-largest economy by PPP. As of 2020, Japan’s labor force is the world’s eighth-largest, and consists of 66.5 million workers.^[77] As of 2021, Japan has a low unemployment rate of around 2.8%.^[152] Its poverty rate is the second highest among the G7 nations,^[153] and exceeds 15.7% of the population.^[154] Japan has the highest ratio of public debt to GDP among advanced economies,^[155] with national debt estimated at 248% relative to GDP as of 2022.^[156] The Japanese yen is the world’s third-largest reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro.^[157]

Japan was the world’s fourth-largest exporter and importer in 2021.^[158][159] Its exports amounted to 15.6% of its total GDP in 2020.^[160] As of 2019, Japan’s main export markets were the United States (19.8 percent) and China (19.1 percent).^[111] Its main exports are motor vehicles, iron and steel products, semiconductors, and auto parts.^[77] Japan’s main import markets as of 2019 were China (23.5 percent), the United States (11 percent), and Australia (6.3 percent).^[111] Japan’s main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, and raw materials for its industries.^[111]

The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features: keiretsu enterprises are influential, and lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are common in the Japanese work environment.^[161][162] Japan has a large cooperative sector, with three of the world’s ten largest cooperatives, including the largest consumer cooperative and the largest agricultural cooperative as of 2018.^[163] It ranks highly for competitiveness and economic freedom. Japan ranked sixth in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019.^[164] It attracted 31.9 million international tourists in 2019,^[165] and was ranked eleventh in the world in 2019 for inbound tourism.^[166] The 2021 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Japan first in the world out of 117 countries.^[167] Its international tourism receipts in 2019 amounted to $46.1 billion.^[166]

Agriculture and fishery

The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the total country’s GDP as of 2018.^[111] Only 11.5% of Japan’s land is suitable for cultivation.^[168] Because of this lack of arable land, a system of terraces is used to farm in small areas.^[169] This results in one of the world’s highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% as of 2018.^[170] Japan’s small agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected.^[171] There has been a growing concern about farming as farmers are aging with a difficult time finding successors.^[172]

Japan ranked seventh in the world in tonnage of fish caught and captured 3,167,610 metric tons of fish in 2016, down from an annual average of 4,000,000 tons over the previous decade.^[173] Japan maintains one of the world’s largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch,^[77] prompting critiques that Japan’s fishing is leading to depletion in fish stocks such as tuna.^[174] Japan has sparked controversy by supporting commercial whaling.^[175]

Industry and services

Japan has a large industrial capacity and is home to some of the «largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles, and processed foods».^[77] Japan’s industrial sector makes up approximately 27.5% of its GDP.^[77] The country’s manufacturing output is the third highest in the world as of 2019.^[177]

Japan is the third-largest automobile producer in the world as of 2017 and is home to Toyota, the world’s largest automobile company by vehicle production.^[176][178] The Japanese shipbuilding industry faces competition from South Korea and China; a 2020 government initiative identified this sector as a target for increasing exports.^[179]

Japan’s service sector accounts for about 70% of its total economic output as of 2019.^[180] Banking, retail, transportation, and telecommunications are all major industries, with companies such as Toyota, Mitsubishi UFJ, -NTT, ÆON, Softbank, Hitachi, and Itochu listed as among the largest in the world.^[181][182]

Science and technology

Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly in the natural sciences and engineering. The country ranks twelfth among the most innovative countries in the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index and 13th in the Global Innovation Index in 2022, up from 15th in 2019.^[183][184] Relative to gross domestic product, Japan’s research and development budget is the second highest in the world,^[185] with 867,000 researchers sharing a 19-trillion-yen research and development budget as of 2017.^[186] The country has produced twenty-two Nobel laureates in either physics, chemistry or medicine,^[187] and three Fields medalists.^[188]

Japan leads the world in robotics production and use, supplying 55% of the world’s 2017 total.^[189] Japan has the second highest number of researchers in science and technology per capita in the world with 14 per 1000 employees.^[190]

Once considered the strongest in the world, the Japanese consumer electronics industry is in a state of decline as competition arises in countries like South Korea and China.^[191] However, video gaming in Japan remains a major industry. In 2014, Japan’s consumer video game market grossed $9.6 billion, with $5.8 billion coming from mobile gaming.^[192] By 2015, Japan had become the world’s fourth-largest PC game market, behind only China, the United States, and South Korea.^[193]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is Japan’s national space agency; it conducts space, planetary, and aviation research, and leads development of rockets and satellites.^[194] It is a participant in the International Space Station: the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibō) was added to the station during Space Shuttle assembly flights in 2008.^[195] The space probe Akatsuki was launched in 2010 and achieved orbit around Venus in 2015.^[196] Japan’s plans in space exploration include building a moon base and landing astronauts by 2030.^[197] In 2007, it launched lunar explorer SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) from Tanegashima Space Center. The largest lunar mission since the Apollo program, its purpose was to gather data on the moon’s origin and evolution. The explorer entered a lunar orbit on October 4, 2007,^[198][199] and was deliberately crashed into the Moon on June 11, 2009.^[200]

Infrastructure

Transportation

Japan has invested heavily in transportation infrastructure.^[201] The country has approximately 1,200,000 kilometers (750,000 miles) of roads made up of 1,000,000 kilometers (620,000 miles) of city, town and village roads, 130,000 kilometers (81,000 miles) of prefectural roads, 54,736 kilometers (34,011 miles) of general national highways and 7641 kilometers (4748 miles) of national expressways as of 2017.^[202]

Since privatization in 1987,^[203] dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets; major companies include seven JR enterprises, Kintetsu, Seibu Railway and Keio Corporation. The high-speed Shinkansen (bullet trains) that connect major cities are known for their safety and punctuality.^[204]

There are 175 airports in Japan as of 2013.^[77] The largest domestic airport, Haneda Airport in Tokyo, was Asia’s second-busiest airport in 2019.^[205] The Keihin and Hanshin superport hubs are among the largest in the world, at 7.98 and 5.22 million TEU respectively as of 2017.^[206]

Energy

As of 2019, 37.1% of energy in Japan was produced from petroleum, 25.1% from coal, 22.4% from natural gas, 3.5% from hydropower and 2.8% from nuclear power, among other sources. Nuclear power was down from 11.2 percent in 2010.^[207] By May 2012 all of the country’s nuclear power plants had been taken offline because of ongoing public opposition following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011, though government officials continued to try to sway public opinion in favor of returning at least some to service.^[208] The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant restarted in 2015,^[209] and since then several other nuclear power plants have been restarted.^[210] Japan lacks significant domestic reserves and has a heavy dependence on imported energy.^[211] The country has therefore aimed to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of energy efficiency.^[212]

Water supply and sanitation

Responsibility for the water and sanitation sector is shared between the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in charge of water supply for domestic use; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, in charge of water resources development as well as sanitation; the Ministry of the Environment, in charge of ambient water quality and environmental preservation; and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in charge of performance benchmarking of utilities.^[213] Access to an improved water source is universal in Japan. About 98% of the population receives piped water supply from public utilities.^[214]

Demographics

Japan has a population of 125.4 million, of which 122.8 million are Japanese nationals (2021 estimates).^[215] A small population of foreign residents makes up the remainder.^[216] In 2019, 92% of the total Japanese population lived in cities.^[217] The capital city Tokyo has a population of 13.9 million (2022).^[218] It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, the biggest metropolitan area in the world with 38,140,000 people (2016).^[219] Japan is an ethnically and culturally homogeneous society,^[220] the Japanese people form 98.1% of the country’s population.^[221] Minority ethnic groups in the country include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan people.^[222] Zainichi Koreans,^[223] Chinese,^[224] Filipinos,^[225] Brazilians mostly of Japanese descent,^[226] and Peruvians mostly of Japanese descent are also among Japan’s small minority groups.^[227] Burakumin make up a social minority group.^[228]

Japan is the world’s fastest aging country and has the highest proportion of elderly citizens of any country, comprising one-third of its total population;^[229] this is the result of a post–World War II baby boom, which was followed by an increase in life expectancy and a decrease in birth rates.^[230] Japan has a total fertility rate of 1.4, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1, and is among the world’s lowest;^[231] it has a median age of 48.4, the highest in the world.^[232] As of 2020, over 28.7 percent of the population is over 65, or one in four out of the Japanese population.^[229] As a growing number of younger Japanese are not marrying or remaining childless,^[233][234] Japan’s population is expected to drop to around 88 million by 2065.^[229]

The changes in demographic structure have created several social issues, particularly a decline in the workforce population and an increase in the cost of social security benefits.^[233] The government of Japan projects that there will be almost one elderly person for each person of working age by 2060.^[232] Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation’s aging population.^[235][236] On April 1, 2019, Japan’s revised immigration law was enacted, protecting the rights of foreign workers to help reduce labor shortages in certain sectors.^[237]

Religion

Japan’s constitution guarantees full religious freedom.^[238] Upper estimates suggest that 84–96 percent of the Japanese population subscribe to Shinto as its indigenous religion.^[239] However, these estimates are based on people affiliated with a temple, rather than the number of true believers. Many Japanese people practice both Shinto and Buddhism; they can either identify with both religions or describe themselves as non-religious or spiritual.^[240] The level of participation in religious ceremonies as a cultural tradition remains high, especially during festivals and occasions such as the first shrine visit of the New Year.^[241] Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs.^[242]

Christianity was first introduced into Japan by Jesuit missions starting in 1549. Today, 1%^[243] to 1.5% of the population are Christians.^[244] Throughout the latest century, Western customs originally related to Christianity (including Western style weddings, Valentine’s Day and Christmas) have become popular as secular customs among many Japanese.^[245]

About 90% of those practicing Islam in Japan are foreign-born migrants as of 2016.^[246] As of 2018 there were an estimated 105 mosques and 200,000 Muslims in Japan, 43,000 of which were Japanese nationals.^[247] Other minority religions include Hinduism, Judaism, and Baháʼí Faith, as well as the animist beliefs of the Ainu.^[248]

Languages

The Japanese language is Japan’s de facto national language and the primary written and spoken language of most people in the country.^[249] Japanese writing uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on cursive script and radicals used by kanji), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals.^[250] English has taken a major role in Japan as a business and international link language. As a result, the prevalence of English in the educational system has increased, with English classes becoming mandatory at all levels of the Japanese school system by 2020.^[249] Japanese Sign Language is the primary sign language used in Japan and has gained some official recognition, but its usage has been historically hindered by discriminatory policies and a lack of educational support.^[249]

Besides Japanese, the Ryukyuan languages (Amami, Kunigami, Okinawan, Miyako, Yaeyama, Yonaguni), part of the Japonic language family, are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands chain.^[251] Few children learn these languages,^[252] but local governments have sought to increase awareness of the traditional languages.^[253] The Ainu language, which is a language isolate, is moribund, with only a few native speakers remaining as of 2014.^[254] Additionally, a number of other languages are taught and used by ethnic minorities, immigrant communities, and a growing number of foreign-language students, such as Korean (including a distinct Zainichi Korean dialect), Chinese and Portuguese.^[249]

Education

Since the 1947 Fundamental Law of Education, compulsory education in Japan comprises elementary and junior high school, which together last for nine years.^[255] Almost all children continue their education at a three-year senior high school.^[256] The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.^[257] Starting in April 2016, various schools began the academic year with elementary school and junior high school integrated into one nine-year compulsory schooling program; MEXT plans for this approach to be adopted nationwide.^[258]

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) coordinated by the OECD ranks the knowledge and skills of Japanese 15-year-olds as the third best in the world.^[259] Japan is one of the top-performing OECD countries in reading literacy, math and sciences with the average student scoring 520 and has one of the world’s highest-educated labor forces among OECD countries.^{[260][259][261]} It spent roughly 3.1% of its total GDP on education as of 2018,^[262] below the OECD average of 4.9%.^[263] In 2021, the country ranked third for the percentage of 25 to 64-year-olds that have attained tertiary education with 55.6%.^[264] Approximately 65% of Japanese aged 25 to 34 have some form of tertiary education qualification, and bachelor’s degrees are held by 34.2% of Japanese aged 25 to 64, the second most in the OECD after South Korea.^[264] In 2020, the share of women among tertiary programmes graduates was 51,8%.^[264]

Health

Health care in Japan is provided by national and local governments. Payment for personal medical services is offered through a universal health insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with fees set by a government committee. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments.^[265] Since 1973, all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance.^[266]

Japan spent 10.74% of its total GDP on healthcare in 2019.^[267] In 2020, the overall life expectancy in Japan at birth was 84.62 years (81.64 years for males and 87.74 years for females), the highest in the world;^[268] while it had a very low infant mortality rate (2 per 1,000 live births).^[269] Since 1981, the principal cause of death in Japan is cancer, which accounted for 27% of the total deaths in 2018—followed by cardiovascular diseases, which led to 15% of the deaths.^[270] Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, which is considered a major social issue.^[271] Another significant public health issue is smoking among Japanese men.^[272] However, Japan has the lowest rate of heart disease in the OECD, and the lowest level of dementia among developed countries.^[273]

Culture

Contemporary Japanese culture combines influences from Asia, Europe, and North America.^[274] Traditional Japanese arts include crafts such as ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, swords and dolls; performances of bunraku, kabuki, noh, dance, and rakugo; and other practices, the tea ceremony, ikebana, martial arts, calligraphy, origami, onsen, Geisha and games. Japan has a developed system for the protection and promotion of both tangible and intangible Cultural Properties and National Treasures.^[275] Twenty-two sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, eighteen of which are of cultural significance.^[102] Japan is considered a cultural superpower.^[276][277] The culture of Japan has left a lasting impact within global cultural flows, across numerous arts and media industries;^{[278][279][280]} in genres and lifestyles as diverse as abstract art,^[281] Christian media,^[282] electronic dance music,^[283] science fiction,^[284] and Westerns.^[285]

Art and architecture

The history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competition between native Japanese esthetics and imported ideas.^[286] The interaction between Japanese and European art has been significant: for example ukiyo-e prints, which began to be exported in the 19th century in the movement known as Japonism, had a significant influence on the development of modern art in the West, most notably on post-Impressionism.^[286]

Japanese architecture is a combination of local and other influences. It has traditionally been typified by wooden or mud plaster structures, elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs.^[287] The Shrines of Ise have been celebrated as the prototype of Japanese architecture.^[288] Traditional housing and many temple buildings see the use of tatami mats and sliding doors that break down the distinction between rooms and indoor and outdoor space.^[289] Since the 19th century, Japan has incorporated much of Western modern architecture into construction and design.^[290] It was not until after World War II that Japanese architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzō Tange and then with movements like Metabolism.^[291]

Literature and philosophy

The earliest works of Japanese literature include the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki chronicles and the Man’yōshū poetry anthology, all from the 8th century and written in Chinese characters.^[292][293] In the early Heian period, the system of phonograms known as kana (hiragana and katakana) was developed.^[294] The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative.^[295] An account of court life is given in The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, while The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is often described as the world’s first novel.^[296][297]

During the Edo period, the chōnin («townspeople») overtook the samurai aristocracy as producers and consumers of literature. The popularity of the works of Saikaku, for example, reveals this change in readership and authorship, while Bashō revivified the poetic tradition of the Kokinshū with his haikai (haiku) and wrote the poetic travelogue Oku no Hosomichi.^[298] The Meiji era saw the decline of traditional literary forms as Japanese literature integrated Western influences. Natsume Sōseki and Mori Ōgai were significant novelists in the early 20th century, followed by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Kafū Nagai and, more recently, Haruki Murakami and Kenji Nakagami. Japan has two Nobel Prize-winning authors – Yasunari Kawabata (1968) and Kenzaburō Ōe (1994).^[299]

Japanese philosophy has historically been a fusion of both foreign, particularly Chinese and Western, and uniquely Japanese elements. In its literary forms, Japanese philosophy began about fourteen centuries ago. Confucian ideals remain evident in the Japanese concept of society and the self, and in the organization of the government and the structure of society.^[300] Buddhism has profoundly impacted Japanese psychology, metaphysics, and esthetics.^[301]

Performing arts

Japanese music is eclectic and diverse. Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the 9th and 10th centuries. The popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, dates from the 16th century.^[302] Western classical music, introduced in the late 19th century, forms an integral part of Japanese culture.^[303] Kumi-daiko (ensemble drumming) was developed in postwar Japan and became very popular in North America.^[304] Popular music in post-war Japan has been heavily influenced by American and European trends, which has led to the evolution of J-pop.^[305] Karaoke is a significant cultural activity.^[306]

The four traditional theaters from Japan are noh, kyōgen, kabuki, and bunraku.^[307] Noh is one of the oldest continuous theater traditions in the world.^[308]

Holidays

Officially, Japan has 16 national, government-recognized holidays. Public holidays in Japan are regulated by the Public Holiday Law (国民の祝日に関する法律, Kokumin no Shukujitsu ni Kansuru Hōritsu) of 1948.^[309] Beginning in 2000, Japan implemented the Happy Monday System, which moved a number of national holidays to Monday in order to obtain a long weekend.^[310] The national holidays in Japan are New Year’s Day on January 1, Coming of Age Day on the second Monday of January, National Foundation Day on February 11, The Emperor’s Birthday on February 23, Vernal Equinox Day on March 20 or 21, Shōwa Day on April 29, Constitution Memorial Day on May 3, Greenery Day on May 4, Children’s Day on May 5, Marine Day on the third Monday of July, Mountain Day on August 11, Respect for the Aged Day on the third Monday of September, Autumnal Equinox on September 23 or 24, Health and Sports Day on the second Monday of October, Culture Day on November 3, and Labor Thanksgiving Day on November 23.^[311]

Cuisine

Japanese cuisine offers a vast array of regional specialties that use traditional recipes and local ingredients.^[312] Seafood and Japanese rice or noodles are traditional staples.^[313] Japanese curry, since its introduction to Japan from British India, is so widely consumed that it can be termed a national dish, alongside ramen and sushi.^[314][315] Traditional Japanese sweets are known as wagashi.^[316] Ingredients such as red bean paste and mochi are used. More modern-day tastes include green tea ice cream.^[317]

Popular Japanese beverages include sake, which is a brewed rice beverage that typically contains 14–17% alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice.^[318] Beer has been brewed in Japan since the late 17th century.^[319] Green tea is produced in Japan and prepared in forms such as matcha, used in the Japanese tea ceremony.^[320]

Media

According to the 2015 NHK survey on television viewing in Japan, 79 percent of Japanese watch television daily.^[321] Japanese television dramas are viewed both within Japan and internationally;^[322] other popular shows are in the genres of variety shows, comedy, and news programs.^[323] Many Japanese media franchises such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto have gained considerable global popularity and are among the world’s highest-grossing media franchises. Pokémon in particular is estimated to be the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. Japanese newspapers are among the most circulated in the world as of 2016.^[324]

Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries globally.^[325] Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history.^[326][327] Japanese comics, known as manga, developed in the mid-20th century and have become popular worldwide.^[328][329] A large number of manga series have become some of the best-selling comics series of all time, rivalling the American comics industry.^[330] Japanese animated films and television series, known as anime, were largely influenced by Japanese manga and have become highly popular internationally.^[331][332]

Sports

Traditionally, sumo is considered Japan’s national sport.^[333] Japanese martial arts such as judo and kendo are taught as part of the compulsory junior high school curriculum.^[334] Baseball is the most popular spectator sport in the country.^[335] Japan’s top professional league, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), was established in 1936.^[336] Since the establishment of the Japan Professional Football League (J.League) in 1992, association football gained a wide following.^[337] The country co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea.^[338] Japan has one of the most successful football teams in Asia, winning the Asian Cup four times,^[339] and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2011.^[340] Golf is also popular in Japan.^[341]

In motorsport, Japanese automotive manufacturers have been successful in multiple different categories, with titles and victories in series such as Formula One, MotoGP, and the World Rally Championship.^{[342][343][344]} Drivers from Japan have victories at the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as podium finishes in Formula One, in addition to success in domestic championships.^[345][346] Super GT is the most popular national racing series in Japan, while Super Formula is the top-level domestic open-wheel series.^[347] The country hosts major races such as the Japanese Grand Prix.^[348]

Japan hosted the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 and the Winter Olympics in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.^[349] The country hosted the official 2006 Basketball World Championship^[350] and will co-host the 2023 Basketball World Championship.^[351] Tokyo hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021, making Tokyo the first Asian city to host the Olympics twice.^[352] The country gained the hosting rights for the official Women’s Volleyball World Championship on five occasions, more than any other nation.^[353] Japan is the most successful Asian Rugby Union country^[354] and hosted the 2019 IRB Rugby World Cup.^[355]

See also

• Index of Japan-related articles
• Outline of Japan

Notes

References

External links

Government

• JapanGov – The Government of Japan (in English)
• Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet Official website (in English)
• The Imperial Household Agency – Official site of the Imperial House of Japan
• National Diet Library

General information

• Japan from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• Japan from BBC News
• Japan from the OECD
• Geographic data related to Japan at OpenStreetMap

Coordinates: 36°N 138°E / 36°N 138°E

Ever wondered why in Japan the country is called Nihon and Nippon? Or have you ever wondered why the West calls the country Japan? Where did these terms come from? Are there other alternatives for referring to the land of the rising sun?

In this article, we will understand why Japan has several names like Nihon and Nippon. Let’s see how these names came about, some curiosities and how to say Japan in several languages. Below is a summary of the article:

How do you say Japan in Japanese?

As the title of the article and its introduction suggest, Japan in Japanese is nihon or nippon [日本] both spelled the same way. Throughout the article you will understand a little better about the meaning and origin of this name.

If you want to call Japan Japan in Japanese, you can say jyapan [ジャポン] equivalent to English Japan. Japan officially uses this English version in official documents displayed internationally and also in passports.

There are other ways to transcribe Japan from different languages into the Japanese language using katakana. The closest we have to Portuguese and Spanish is japanese [ジャポン] although rarely known by the Japanese.

Meaning and origin of the name Japan

Japan in Japanese is written [日本] where [日] means sun and [本] means origin. For this reason, Japan is known as the land of the rising sun and has a simple flag which represents the sun. The ideograms in the Japanese language have several readings allowing the pronunciation nihon and nippon for the name of the country [日本].

Phonemes in the Japanese language are called hiragana and katakana where each drawing represents a sound. Using these alphabets we can write nihon [日本] as follows: [にほん] or [ニホン]. Now notice the tiny difference in the Nippon word written in hiragana and katakana: [にっぽん] [ニッポン].

The hiragana or katakana letters used are practically the same, the difference is that nippon uses a accentuation to transform a H in P and a small tsu [っ] to lengthen the pronunciation of the P. There is basically no different reading of the ideograms [日本] to pronounce the name of Japan, it’s just phonetic details.

Why is Japan the land of the rising sun? That’s because according to the Chinese, the country is located in eastern China, where apparently the sun rises. It is also believed in the influence of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. We can also notice in the time zone, where Japan is 12 hours ahead of us.

What is the old name of Japan?

The Chinese called Japan before it became an official country of wow [倭] becoming what we know in Japanese from wakoku [倭国] which probably has a difference in pronunciation at the time.

However [倭] was not a good character, so it was changed to [和] which means “agreement”. Then the name was established as wamato and then yamato which means something like behind the mountain.

For Westerners, Japan has always been called by some variant of the word japan, we’ll talk about that later in the article.

Why call it Japan in the west?

Ever wondered why the West or the rest of the world calls the country of the rising sun Japan and not Nihon or Nippon? This happened because the person who introduced Japan to the world, the famous Marco Polo, only knew Japan through the Chinese by some dialect in southern China that pronounced the ideograms [日本] as zipangu.

In traditional Chinese, the characters of Nihon or Nippon [日本] are usually pronounced as Rìběn. Marco Polo ended up taking Zipangu and turning it into a Jipen that later became Japan in English and in Brazil it became Japan. In Japanese we can write Japan using the katakana [ジャパン].

Not even the Japanese usually question this decision of the world, since the ideogram [日] also has the Chinese pronunciation jitsu. So it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to say jitsupon or jitsuhon slightly reminiscent of Zipangu or Japan, even more so in the English pronunciation.

Japan has undergone several phonological changes during its history. Possibly Nifon and Jippon were some of them. This explains a lot why the country is called Japan in English and have pronunciations beginning with J in many languages.

When to use Nihon and Nippon?

The first pronunciation used in ideograms [日本] was Nippon. This term began to be used around 640 and it makes perfect sense to use the P in relation to the word Japan or Japan. It is believed that the term Nihon arose in the Edo period in the Kanto region. So much so that the commercial district of Tokyo is called Nihonbashi, while the commercial district of Osaka that is close to Kyoto (former capital) is called Niponbashi.

Throughout Nihon’s history, people have argued about the best way or the official way to pronounce [日本], is it Nihon or Nippon? Currently Nihon has become more popular than the original Nippon, used by more than 60% of the population. Also note that no one refers to the Japanese language as nippongo, only as nihongo [日本語].

Not even the government accepted the proposal to make official the pronunciation of the land of the rising sun as Nippon in the year 1934. It is more common to pronounce Nippon when the word is isolated and alone. If the word is together with another ideogram presenting some concept or idea of the country, it is more normal to use the Nihon reading…

Other ways of referring to Japan

Basically the name of Japan is composed of 2 ideograms that can be pronounced the way the person wants. Was it always like this? Before 640 what was Nihon called? Are there alternatives to the words Japan, Nihon and Nippon?

Before Nihon and Nippon [日本], the land of the rising sun was called Yamato [倭] or simply wa, or better, wakoku [倭国]. This name was given by the Chinese who first encountered the Japanese in Southern China. The country at the time was divided into several ancient provinces. Yamato was the main one, responsible for founding an imperial court in Nara.

Over the years the character [倭] has been simplified to [和] which means harmony and peace. This ideogram is still widely used in the Japanese language in several words related to Japanese people, such as traditional Japanese food washoku [和食]. the kanji wow [我] also has a certain connection and concept about Japan.

Throughout the history of Nihon or Nippon, he gained other names and nicknames such as:

• Ōyashima [大八洲] Great country of 8 (many) islands;
• Yashima [八島] Eight (many) islands;
• Hinomoto [日の本];
• Akitsukuni [秋津国];
• Shikishima [敷島];
• Mizuho [瑞穂];
• Fusō [扶桑];

How do you say Japan in other languages?

To end the article we will leave a list of how the land of the rising sun is called in different languages. Hope you like it, thanks for sharing, commenting and reading our article.

Responsive Table: Scroll the table to the side with your finger >>

languages	How to say Japan in another language
Amharic	ጃፓን (japani)
Arabic	اليابان (al-yābān)
Armenian	ճապոնիա (Chaponia)
Azerbaijani	Yaponiya
bangla	জাপান (Jāpān)
Basque	japan
Belarusian	Японія (Japanese)
Catalan	japan
Croatian	Japan
Czech	Japanese
Dutch	Japan
English	Japan
Filipino	Hapon (Japan)
Finnish	japani
French	japanese
Galician	the shapon
Georgian	იაპონია (iaponia)
German	Japan
Greek	Ιαπωνία (Iaponía)
Hawaiian	Iapana
Hebrew	יפן (Yapan)
Hindi	जापान (jāpān)
Hungarian	japan
Icelandic	Japan
Indonesian	Jepang
Irish	An tSeapain
Italian	giappone
Kazakh	Жапония (Japoniya)
Khmer	ជប៉ុន (Japanese)
Kurdish	Japanese
Malay	جڤون‎ (Jepun)
Maltese	Ġappun
Mongolia	Япон
Persian	ژاپن (žāpon)
Polish	japan
romanian	japan
Russian	Япония (Yaponiya)
Scottish Gaelic	iapan
Sinhalese	ජපානය (Japanaya)
Slovak	Japanese
Spanish	japan
Swedish	Japan
Tamil	ஜப்பான் (Jappaan)
thai	ญี่ปุ่น (yīpun)
Turkish	Japanese
Ukrainian	Японія (Yaponiya)
Urdu	جاپان (jāpān)
Welsh	siapan
Xhosa	japhan

Japanese use the names “Nihon” or “Nippon” to call their country. The rest of the world knows it as “Japan” or other similar derivatives. How come these two names sound so different?

Japan is called “Japan” because of Marco Polo, the great Venetian explorer from the thirteenth century. He introduced this country to the western world as “Zipangu” or “Cipangu”. Other sources claim it to be a derivation from the Malaysian word “Jih-pun”‘ (origin of the sun) which had its origin in the southern Chinese dialect reading of Nippon.

The Origins of the Name “Japan”

As Japanese people call their country “Nihon” or “Nippon”, it makes sense for others to follow the suit. Also, these words don’t even remotely sound like “Japan”. So, what’s the story behind the journey from Nihon/Nippon to Japan?

The kanji (Chinese characters for writing Japanese) word for “Japan” is “日本” (the origin of the sun). This name has actually come from the Chinese people since Japan lies towards the east of China, the direction of the rising sun.

In Japanese, the word “日本” is pronounced “Nihon”, or “Nippon” if you need to sound formal or put more emphasis. You can read the letter “日” as “jitsu” or “nichi” (the latter is more preferable in this regard), and “本” as “hon”.

When these two letters make a single word, the “chi” or “tsu” of the first letter gets dropped and the “h-” of the next letter is replaced with a “p-” with a double consonant. Thus you get the word “Nippon”.

It’s argued that people at some point might have read “日” as “jitsu”, pronouncing “日本” as “Jippon”. It makes sense that all it needed was a linguistic jump to come to “Japan” from “Jippon”.

However, the word’s journey to the Western world still needs some explanations.

The Marco Polo Theory

Explorer Marco Polo was the first person to introduce Japan to the Westerners. There are arguments over whether or not he actually visited Japan. However, in his famous diaries, he mentioned the country as “Zipangu”.

Polo traveled to the southern part of China, where the word “日本” was pronounced as “Ji-pang” or “Zu-pang”. He heard from the locals about this country of the rising sun and mentioned it in his diaries. He added the word “-gu” in the end, as guo/guó in Chinese means “country”.

According to some other accounts, Polo introduced the word “Jipangu” or “Zipangu” as an attempt to write the Chinese pronunciation in Italian. In Mandarin, the letter “日” sounds like a simultaneous pronunciation of “j” and “r”. On the other hand, “本” sounded similar to “pun”. So, the word might have sounded like “jrpun” to Polo, which he wrote as “Zipangu”.

The Portuguese Explorers

Portuguese travelers used to travel to the northern part of China where the word “日本” was pronounced as “Cipan”, which they interpreted as “Jipan”.

The Various Names of Japan

During the course of its history, Japan has been known in various names. Let’s take a look at those names and the history behind them.

Oyashima (大八洲)

Japanese was an oral language for many years before the invention of Hiragana (the Japanese Alphabet). So, there is no documentation regarding what the earliest inhabitants used to call the country and themselves.

The oldest Japanese text that has been found so far is the Kojiki (An Account of Ancient Matters). Written by 711-712 CE in classical Japanese (using Chinese characters with Japanese sounds), the text chronicled songs, legends, and many other things including the mythical creation story of Japan.

The chronicle referred to a land called Oyashima (the Eight Great Islands). It’s debatable whether or not the prehistoric people used this name since Japan was already known as Wakoku when the Kojiki was written.

Wakoku (倭国)

Before the official name “Nihon”, China used to call Japan as the “Land of Wa” or Wakoku (dwarf or submissive). Being first used during the third-century “Three Kingdoms” period, the reference to these people was found in Chinese court records.

The first incident of a Japanese ambassador visiting China took place in 57 CE. Emperor Guangwu (from the Han Dynasty) gave him a seal made of gold as a token of friendship and good relations. Since then, the Japanese have been treating the seal as a national treasure. It has texts that loosely translate to:

King of Na, Land of Wa, vassal to the Han Dynasty.

Due to the derogatory connotation of Wa and Wakoku, Japanese envoys requested the Chinese emperor to change the name to “Nihon”, and the Chinese court agreed to use them new name in 703. In Japan, the name change took place sometime between 665 and 703.

Yamato (大和)

Japan used to be a land of several provinces before becoming one country. The Na Kingdom was not the only kingdom in the country.

Yamato people were the largest group of native Japanese who used to live in the modern-day Honshu. They built an imperial court in Nara in the 6th century.

The Japanese people never called the country Yamato, but the Chinese used the names “Wa” and “Yamato” until the 7th century.

Nihon (日本)

The word “日本” in kanji refers to the name Nihon/Nippon. The name was first recorded in the Old Book of Tang that chronicled the history of the Tang Dynasty.

Japanese changed the name of their country from “Wakoku” to “Nihon” around the 7th century. At the beginning of the 7th century, a Japanese delegation visited China on behalf of Prince Shotoku, an Asuka ruler. Those delegates requested the Chinese Emperor to change their country’s name to “Nihon”.

The Prince sent a letter with those delegates. Its message, which is recorded in the Sui Dynasty’s official history book, loosely translates to:

The Emperor of the land where the sun rises sends a letter to the Emperor of the land where the sun sets. Are you healthy?

According to some other records, the name was changed because of the order of the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian, who was the empress regnant of the Zhou dynasty.

Either way, Nihon became the official name of Japan.

Fusō (扶桑)

This word means “hibiscus”. Hibiscus was a plant found in a Pacific island where the sun was believed to rise from.

The name “Fusō” was first mentioned in a Song Dynasty (from 960 to 1279 A.D.) history book. Its meaning was changed to refer to Japan at a later period.

An example of the word used in Japan is found in the title Fusō Ryakuki, a Japanese history book. It was written between 794 and 1185, during the Heian Era, which means the name came to Japan no later than the twelfth century.

From the time frame, it’s obvious that the name “Nihon” came earlier than “Fusō”. Scholars assume that the Chinese people might have used the word as an artistic alternative to “Nihon”.

The Land of the Rising Sun

Just like the USA is “Uncle Sam” and Egypt is the “Gift of Nile”, Japan is known as the “Land of the Rising Sun”.

The secret behind this name lies in the name of the country. Both Nihon and Nippon are written as “日本” in kanji. The word means “origin of the sun” or the “land of the rising sun”.

This name came from the Chinese since Japan is in the east of China. From the perspective of Chinese people, it’s the place where the sun comes out every day. The Japanese naming their country based on the consideration of the Chinese shows their esteem and admiration for the Chinese rulers in ancient times.

Due to this tie to the sun, the Japanese highly revere the goddess Amaterasu. They consider her as an incarnation of the rising sun and Japan itself. She is also the Queen of Heaven and the goddess of creation.

In fact, the official name of Japan’s national flag is Nisshōki (日章旗), which means the “flag of the sun”. Its original design featured a yellow sun on a red background. The national flag is another thing that represents the country’s moniker — the Land of the Rising Sun.

What Do Japanese People Call Their Country: Nihon or Nippon?

Asking Japanese people about the name of their country will draw mixed responses. Some people will call it “Nippon” while others may refer to it as “Nihon”. Which one is the official name?

The Japanese government solved the dilemma in 2009. A cabinet council announced both as the official names of the country.

So, why keeping both names instead of just one? It would be less confusing, right?

Here’s a video explaining the differences:

It can be explained from a phonetics angle too. Uttering the letter “h” is difficult in some languages. For instance, the French don’t pronounce it normally and native English speakers scrap it altogether in some sentences.

In the past, Japanese people too used to struggle with making the “h” sound and sometimes substitute it with “p” because it’s easier to pronounce. So, it’s now clear how “Nihon” has turned into “Nippon”.

While modern Japanese people know the difference between “h” and “p” sounds, many of them still use the name “Nippon” instead of “Nihon”. It’s either because they think “Nippon” is the right word or they cannot pronounce “h”.

However, after the government declaration, Japan now uses both names for official purposes. You will see Japanese banknotes using the name “Nippon”. Many Japanese also deliberately call their country “Nippon” instead of “Nihon”.