Editing Japan (section)

==Etymology==
{{Main|Names of Japan}}
The name for Japan in [[Japanese language|Japanese]] is written using the [[kanji]] {{nihongo2|日本}} and is pronounced {{transliteration|ja|Nihon}} or {{transliteration|ja|Nippon}}.<ref name="schreiber">{{cite web|last1=Schreiber|first1=Mark|title=You say 'Nihon', I say 'Nippon', or let's call the whole thing 'Japan'?|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2019/11/26/language/nihon-nippon-japan/|website=[[The Japan Times]]|date=November 26, 2019|archivedate=October 27, 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027120630/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2019/11/26/language/nihon-nippon-japan/|url-status=live}}</ref> Before {{nihongo2|日本}} was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as {{transliteration|zh|[[Wa (name of Japan)|Wa]]}} ({{lang|zh|倭}}, changed in Japan around 757 to {{Nihongo2|和}}) and in Japan by the [[endonym]] {{transliteration|ja|Yamato}}.<ref name="carr">{{cite journal|last1=Carr|first1=Michael|title=Wa Wa Lexicography|journal=International Journal of Lexicography|date=March 1992|volume=5|issue=1|pages=1–31|doi=10.1093/ijl/5.1.1|url=https://academic.oup.com/ijl/article/5/1/1/950449|url-access=subscription}}</ref> {{transliteration|ja|Nippon}}, the original [[Sino-Japanese reading]] of the characters, is favored for official uses, including on [[Banknotes of the Japanese yen|Japanese banknotes]] and postage stamps.<ref name="schreiber" /> {{transliteration|ja|Nihon}} is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in [[Japanese phonology]] during the [[Edo period]].<ref name="carr" /> The characters {{nihongo2|日本}} mean "sun origin",<ref name="schreiber" /> which is the source of the popular Western [[epithet]] "Land of the Rising Sun".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Emergence of Japanese Kingship|author1-link=Joan R. Piggott|first=Joan R.|last=Piggott|year=1997|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-2832-4|pages=143–144|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BruaJSZmjHcC}}</ref>

The name "Japan" is based on [[Min Chinese|Min]] or [[Wu Chinese]] pronunciations of {{nihongo2|日本}} and was introduced to European languages through early trade.<ref name=Mancall /> In the 13th century, [[Marco Polo]] recorded the [[Early Mandarin]] Chinese pronunciation of the characters {{lang|zh|日本國}} as {{transliteration|cmn|Cipangu}}.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2008/07/27/general/cipangus-landlocked-isles/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825151317/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2008/07/27/general/cipangus-landlocked-isles|archivedate=August 25, 2018|title=Cipangu's landlocked isles|newspaper=The Japan Times|date=July 27, 2008|last1=Hoffman|first1=Michael }}</ref> The old [[Malay language|Malay]] name for Japan, {{lang|ms|Japang}} or {{lang|ms|Japun}}, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] traders in [[Southeast Asia]], who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century.<ref>{{cite book|title=Asia in the Making of Europe|volume=I|page=157|year=2010|publisher=University of Chicago Press|last=Lach|first=Donald}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mancall|first=Peter C.|title=Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery: an anthology|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=156–157|chapter=Of the Ilande of Giapan, 1565}}</ref><ref name=Mancall>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giZnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PAPA79|title=London: The Selden Map and the Making of a Global City, 1549–1689|first=Robert K.|last=Batchelor|pages=76, 79|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-08079-6|year=2014}}</ref>