History: Old Japan

The English word Japan is an exonym. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon (にっぽん) and Nihon (にほん) ; both names are written using the kanji 日本. The Japanese name Nippon is used for most official purposes, including on money, postage stamps, and for many international sporting events. Nihon is a more casual term and is the most frequently used in contemporary speech. Japanese people refer to themselves as Nihonjin (日本人) and to their language as Nihongo (日本語). Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "sun-origin" and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with the Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as Wa (倭) or Wakoku (倭国).
The English word for Japan came to the West via early trade routes. The early Mandarin or possibly Wu Chinese (吳語) word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the accent of characters 日本 'Japan' is Zeppen; in Wu, the character 日 has two accents, informal (白讀) and formal (文讀). (In some southern Wu dialects, 日本) The old Malay word for Japan, Jepang, was borrowed from a Chinese language, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in a 1565 letter, spelled Giapan.