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Furthermore, why Nippon is called Japan?
The name of the country in JapaneseisNihon or Nippon, written ?? in Chinesecharacters.The characters mean "the origin of the sun". This comesfrom theposition of Japan to the east of China. However,neither"Nihon" nor "Nippon" sounds much like"Japan",so the origin of the word Japan ismysterious.
Regarding this, what is the Japanese name for Japan and what does it mean?
? in kanji. Thesetwocharacters mean "sun" and "origin", and "Nihon"means"origin of the sun", in other words "the land of therisingsun".
Like hiragana, Japan's third writingsystem,katakana, is a native alphabet based on sounds. Butwhydid Japan have need for yet another writing system? Thereasongoes back, again, to the fact that reading kanji isdifficult– and not just for non-Japanese peopleandwomen.