

The exact phrase in the message was “From the Emperor of the land of the rising sun to the Emperor of land of the setting sun.” When the Japanese government sent a sovereign message to the Chinese government around the beginning of the 7th century, it used a term meaning “the land where the sun rises”. Until the 7th century, Japan was called “Wa” or “Yamato” using the Chinese character 倭, which has a connotation of “tiny” or “insignificant”. To be more accurate, around the end of the 7th century (the exact year isn’t known), the government in Japan started calling the country Nihon. There is more to the story of how the Chinese started calling Japan Ji-pang or Zu-pang – written as 日本 meaning “the sun’s origin”. The Chinese use the same characters to represent Japan although it is pronounced differently. The Japanese write 日本 to represent the country of Japan in Japanese. Therefore, people called it Ji-pang or Zu-pang, which can be translated as “the sun’s origin”, i.e. To the people in South China, where Marco Polo had traveled, Japan lies in the direction where the sun rises. He never actually traveled to Japan but instead went to the Southern part of China. Marco Polo, the Italian trader and explorer, introduced Japan to the Western world during the 13th century. Both Nihon and Japan originate from the same words they literally mean “where the sun rises”. Is this because Japan is the first country to see the sun? In Japanese, the country is called Nihon (Nippon). Many people from around the world wonder why Japan is called the land of the rising sun. Japan is often called “ the land of the rising sun”.

Why is Japan called the “land of the rising sun”? Japan-the Land of the Rising Sun
