The Land of Rising Sun : Japan

Ever wondered why people all around the word call Japan as the the land of rising sun ? Is this because Japan is the first country to see the sun ? Is it because it has been called the land of rising sun from the age when dynasties were ruling in Japan ?

Well, we shall get to know the answer for the above question at the end of this article.

Japan: Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 6852 islands. The five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city. Japan is the eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated and urbanized.

Japan is a highly developed country, and a great power in global politics. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by PPP. Although Japan has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as one of the world's strongest militaries.

• Japan has the world's highest life expectancy, though it is experiencing a decline in population.
• Japan is the global leader in the automotive, robotics and electronics industries.
• Japan's culture is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent comic, animation and video game industries.
• Japan is the member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), G20 (Group of Twenty) and G7 (Group of Seven).

Now let us move to our question, why Japan is called as the the land of rising sun ?

In Japanese, the country is called Nihon (Nippon). Both Nihon and Japan originate from the same words; they literally mean “where the sun rises”.

Marco Polo, the Italian trader and explorer,?introduced Japan?to the Western world during the 13th century. He never actually traveled to Japan but instead went to the Southern part of China. There, the people told him about Japan. To the people in South China, where Marco Polo had traveled, Japan lies in the direction where the sun rises. Therefore, people called it Ji-pang or Zu-pang, which can be translated as “the sun’s origin”, i.e. where the sun originates.

Around the end of the 7th century the government in Japan started calling the country Nihon. Until the 7th century, Japan was called “Wa” or “Yamato” using the Chinese character 倭, which has a connotation of “tiny” or “insignificant”. 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”. 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.”

An interesting point is that when naming the country, the Japanese took the Chinese government into consideration, possibly to show its esteem for the Chinese, as Japan is located where the sun rises for the Chinese, not for the Japanese.

Fact Check: Which country sees the first sunrise ? The first place in the world to see the sun is the Tairawhiti Gisborne area in New Zealand.

Historically, Japan has been part of the Sinosphere, i.e., it was under the Chinese cultural sphere of influence. China calls itself the 中国, literally ‘the middle kingdom’. Now, Japan is situated to the east of China, so it came to be known as 日本，literally ‘the land of the rising sun’. Now by modern conventions of GMT and the international date line, New Zealand has the earliest time and therefore sees the sunrise first.

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