A Country Without an Official Name

日本   This is the symbol for "Japan." The first character is a pictograph of the sun and refers to "day."   Two challenges exist when using Kanji.  The first is remembering their meanings.  The second challenge is that they give no clue as to the actual pronunciation.  Did you know that the Japanese people do not agree on how to pronounce the name of their country??  Is it Nihon or Nippon?  But the West calls it "Japan" which literally means "Well, bread."  The western name is owed to Marco Polo's adventures in China.  He heard about--but never actually visited-- the island country to the East that the Mongols (Yuan Dynasty) tried and failed to conquer.  (You may remember that Japan was saved from Chinese invasion by a typhoon called a kamikaze.) The Chinese dialect pronunciation sounded like "Jipen" but in his book, The Travels of Marco Polo, he wrote it "Zipangu."   

Originally the Japanese called their country "Wa" or "Yamato."  In the late 7th century the name was changed to "Nippon" or "Jippon."   When polled today, 61% of Japanese say their country is properly pronounced "Nihon" while 37% refer to it as "Nippon."  What confusion!  Of course, the Diet (parliament) could settle the matter but has chosen not to for reasons that are not entirely clear to me.  So, I guess we are free to call it whatever we choose?  Wa, Yamato, Jipen, Zipangu, Jippon, Nippon, Nihon, or Japan.