In his series on the changing Japanese written language, Arthur Morris has detailed not just how writing, but pronunciation and grammatical conventions in Japanese have evolved over the years. This extends down to the level of the pronunciation of individual words. One word that’s experienced such a shift is the name for “Japan” itself.
Not Always “Nihon”
In modern Japan, the country of Japan is represented by the word “Nihon” (日本). But that wasn’t always the case.
Until the 7th century, the name commonly used for the country Japan was Yamato, represented by the character 倭, also pronounced wa. (The modern form of 倭 is 和 – hence the use of 和 to mean “Japan” in words such as washoku, or Japanese food.) The name “Nihon” comes from Prince Shotoku Taishi, who famously addressed himself to the Emperor of China’s Sui Dynasty as the “Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun” (日出ずる国; hi izuru kuni). “Nihon” is a shorter way of saying 日が出てくる本 (hi ga dete-kuru moto).
Related: How Shotoku Taishi Influenced How Japan Sees Colors
From “Nippon” to “Nihon”
Even after Shotoku Taishi’s time, the dominant race in Japan generally referred to themselves as Yamato. But the written form of “Yamato” differed. In the Kojiki (古事記), a work purported to record Japan’s early history, Yamato was written as 倭. But in the Nihonshoki (日本書紀), a chronicle of early Japan, it was written as 日本. It’s not exactly clear when this happened, but sometime in the 700s, 倭 dropped away and the nation settled on 日本 as the spelling of its name.
So, how did the pronunciation nippon come about? No one seems to know for sure. However, one theory holds that the pronunciation came from Chinese diplomats, who pronounced the characters they used to designate the country as nyet pan (ニエット・プァン).
The theory continues that the pronunciation of nippon lingered until Japan’s Edo era (1603-1868 CE), at which time the fast-talking Edo-ites eventually softened it into nihon.
Since the pronunciation nihon originated in the Tokyo (Edo) area of Japan (Japan’s capital), it didn’t take hold uniformly across the country. The source cited above notes, for example, that major landmarks in Tokyo bear the nihon pronunciation, while those in Osaka and Kyoto tend to use nippon. For example, both Tokyo and Osaka have neighborhoods called 日本橋 – except it’s pronounced nihonbashi in the former and nipponbashi in the latter.
Defending “Nippon” Until One’s Last Breath
Even today, nippon hasn’t disappeared completely. The Edo-era pronunciation can still be found in abundance in the Japanese language. Whether it’s pronounced “Nihon” or “Nippon” in a given context is usually up to the person or organization who bestowed the name. For example, the Bank of Japan (日本銀行) is called nippon ginkou, and the official name of NEC is 日本電気株式会社 (nippon denki kabushiki kaisha). By contrast, Japanese food (日本料理) is always pronounced nihon ryouri. Other words, such as 全日本 (zennihon/zennippon; all of Japan) can be pronounced either way.
(Actually, to complicate matters even further, Nikkei Style notes that Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK, prefers that its announcers say nihon ginkou when referring to the Bank of Japan. However, NHK still allows nippon ginkou as a “second choice”.)
This ambiguity continues to exist because, officially, the Japanese government hasn’t declared one pronunciation as superior to the other. There were at least two attempts in the 20th century to fix this by settling on nippon on the official pronunciation of the country’s name. The first attempt, in 1934, never went anywhere. The second push was made in 1970 before the Osaka World’s Fair, and also died on the table.
Surprisingly, one of the biggest champions of nippon could be found in Japan’s Democratic Party (民主党; minshutou). In 2006, the then-opposition party attempted to change Japan’s Education Law to make Nippon the standard pronunciation taught in schools. A Democratic Party minister brought the subject up one more time in Japan’s Diet in 2009, but the Prime Minister expressed zero interest in litigating the subject.
For many in Japan, the issue of which is the “proper” pronunciation appears long settled. According to an analysis of modern spoken Japanese performed by the National Institute for Japanese Language around 2012, 98% of Japanese speakers agree that it’s nihon all the way.
However, that doesn’t stop some from using nippon – particularly as a way of expressing nationalistic sentiment. This usage even creeps into people in English speaking countries who, for reasons perhaps only known to themselves, support a right-wing revival of the Great Japanese Empire.
While this issue appears settled (for now), the Japanese language – like every language – is constantly evolving. One can only wonder what the inhabitants of Japan will call their land 300 years from now.
