Japanese History

Japan called Nippon or Nihon in Japanese. Both these words were written with the same kanji, ie 日本 (literally: the genesis of the sun). Nippon term is often used in official business, including the name of the country in the Japanese currency, stamps, and international sporting events. Meanwhile, the term is used in business Nihon unofficially as everyday conversation.

Nippon and Nihon word means "the state / country sunrise". This name is mentioned in correspondence with the Imperial Japanese Sui Dynasty in China, and Japan refer to the location in the east of mainland China. Before Japan had relations with China, the country was known as Yamato (大 和). [12] In China at the time of the Three Kingdoms, called for Japan is a country Wa (倭).

In the Shanghai dialect of Chinese which is one of Wu dialects, Chinese characters read as Zeppen 日本 ([zəʔpən]). In the Wu dialect, literacy unofficially 日 read as [niʔ] while officially read as [zəʔ]. In some Southern Wu dialect, 日本 read as [niʔpən] is similar to the name in Japanese.

Japanese words in the Indonesian language probably originated from the Chinese language, Chinese language exactly the Wu dialect. Bahasa Melayu ancient country is also referred as the Japanese (but the spelling of Bahasa Malaysia is now: Jepun). The Japanese word in the language of Malays is then brought to the Western World by Portuguese traders, who know this name when he was in Malacca in the 16th century. They who first introduced the Melayu language name to Europe. The oldest document in English which calls on Japan was a letter from the year 1565, in which marked Giapan said.

Source : www.wikipedia.org