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The word Japan is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages.The Japanese names for Japan are Nihon (にほん ⓘ) and Nippon (にっぽん ⓘ).They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本.
The name for Japan in Japanese is written using the kanji 日本 and is pronounced Nihon or Nippon. [11] 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. [12]
Top to bottom: 倭; wō in regular, clerical and small seal scripts Wa [a] is the oldest attested name of Japan [b] and ethnonym of the Japanese people.From c. the 2nd century AD Chinese and Korean scribes used the Chinese character 倭; 'submissive', 'distant', 'dwarf' to refer to the various inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago, although it might have been just used to transcribe the ...
Japanophilia is a strong interest in Japanese culture, people, and history. [1] In Japanese, the term for Japanophile is "shinnichi" (親日), with "shin (親)" equivalent to the English prefix 'pro-' and "nichi (日)", meaning "Japan" (as in the word for Japan "Nippon/Nihon" (日本)). The term was first used as early as the 18th century ...
Gaijin (外人, [ɡai(d)ʑiɴ]; "outsider", "alien") is a Japanese word for foreigners and non-Japanese citizens in Japan, specifically being applied to foreigners of non-Japanese ethnicity and those from the Japanese diaspora who are not Japanese citizens. [1] The word is composed of two kanji: gai (外, "outside") and jin (人, "person").
The modern Japanese language has a tripartite writing system using hiragana, katakana and kanji. The language includes native Japanese words and a large number of words derived from the Chinese language. In Japan the adult literacy rate in the Japanese language exceeds 99%. [37] Dozens of Japanese dialects are spoken in regions of Japan. For ...
Japanese has no official status in Japan, [21] but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard: hyōjungo (標準語), meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo (共通語), "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. [22]
There is also a notable history of use of Kanbun (Classical Chinese) as a language of literature and diplomacy in Japan, similar to the status of the Latin language in medieval Europe, which has left an indelible mark on the vocabulary of the Japanese language. Kanbun is a mandatory subject in the curricula of most Japanese secondary schools.