What does China call Japan?

• Characters: 日本
• Pronunciation (Pinyin): Rìběn
  • 日 (Rì) = sun
  • 本 (běn) = origin
• Just like in Japanese, it literally means “Origin of the Sun” — same characters, same meaning.

Because:

• Japan actually chose those characters (日本) during the 7th century when corresponding with the Chinese Tang dynasty.
• It was meant to reflect Japan’s location east of China, where the sun rises — hence “origin of the sun.”
• So it’s the same kanji, just pronounced differently in each language.

• Older Chinese texts also referred to Japan as 倭 (Wō) or 倭国 (Wōguó), which Japan eventually rejected because “倭” had negative or inferior connotations.
• That’s part of why Japan switched to calling itself 日本.