Japanese exonyms are the names of places in the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

that differ from the name given in the place's dominant language. While Japanese names of places that are not derived from the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

generally tend to represent the

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

or the English

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

as phonetically accurately as possible, the Japanese terms for some place names are obscured, either because the name was borrowed from another language or because of some other obscure etymology, such as referring to England (more specifically the United Kingdom) as (''Igirisu''), which is based on the Portuguese term for "English", ''Inglês''. Exonyms for cities outside of the

East Asian cultural sphere The Sinosphere, also known as the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically heavily influenced by Chinese culture. The Sinosph ...

tend to be more phonetically accurate to their endonyms than the English exonyms if the endonym is significantly different from the English exonym. The names for nations and cities that existed before major Japanese orthographic reforms in the Meiji era usually have

ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...

, or

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

characters used solely to represent pronunciation. However, the use of ateji today has become far less common, as

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

has largely taken over the role of phonetically representing words of non- Sino-Japanese origin. As significant differences exist between the pronunciations of the Chinese and Japanese languages, many of the ateji terms for the exonyms of foreign, non-Sinitic terms are unrecognizable in Chinese, and likewise, since some of the ateji terms derived from Chinese, the aforementioned terms do not match the Japanese '' on'' or '' kun'' readings for the pronunciation of the given kanji.

Afghanistan

Algeria

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Brazil

Cambodia

Chile

China

, , Hā'ěrbīn () , Mandarin , , - , , Kharbin () , Russian , , - , , Halbin () , Manchu , , - , rowspan="2" ,

Hohhot Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the Capital (political), capital of Inner Mongolia in the North China, north of the China, People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrativ ...

, rowspan="2" , , , Hūhéhàotè () , Mandarin , , - , , Kökekhota () , Mongolian , , - ,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, , (Kōkō) , Hoeng1gong2 , Cantonese , ''Honkon'' based on English exonym , - ,

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, , , Ou3mun2 , Cantonese , ''Makao'' based on Portuguese exonym , - ,

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, , (Nankyō) , Nánjīng , Mandarin , ''Nankin'' same as Japanese pronunciation of historical English exonym , - ,

Ningxia Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous ...

, , Neika , Níngxià () , Mandarin , , - ,

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

, , (Seitō) , Qīngdǎo () , Mandarin , Not to be confused with Aoshima, two different islands in Japan spelled with the same kanji , - ,

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

, (Shānshī) , , Shǎnxī () , Mandarin , As the transcriptions for Shanxi and Shaanxi are indistinguishable in Japanese (since the only way to distinguish the two in Mandarin is the tone of the first syllable), it is more common to use the ''on-yomi'' as they are distinguishable from each other , - , rowspan="2" ,

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, rowspan="2" , , rowspan="2" , Jōkai , Shànghǎi , Mandarin , , - , Zaan²² he⁴⁴ , Wu , , - ,

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

, (Shanshī) , , Shānxī , Mandarin , As the transcriptions for Shanxi and Shaanxi are indistinguishable in Japanese (since the only way to distinguish the two in Mandarin is the tone of the first syllable), it is more common to use the ''on-yomi'' as they are distinguishable from each other , - ,

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

, , Shinsen (, ) , Shēnzhèn , Mandarin , , - ,

Tai Po District Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. The suburban district covers the areas of Tai Po New Town (including areas such as Tai Po Market, , Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Wo Estate), Tai Po Tau, Tai Po Kau, Hong Lok Yue ...

(Hong Kong) , , Taiho , Daai6bou3 , Cantonese , Based on Cantonese pronunciation , - ,

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, , Tenshin , Tiānjīn , Mandarin , Not to be confused with native Japanese word ''amatsu'', written using the same kanji. , - ,

Tap Mun Grass Island or Tap Mun is an island in Hong Kong, located in the northeastern part of the territory. Its area is . Administratively, it is part of the Tai Po District. There are about 100 people living on the island, and feral cattle are kno ...

(Hong Kong) , , Tōmonshū , Taap mùhn Jāu , Cantonese , Transcription based on Cantonese pronunciation , - , rowspan="2" ,

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, rowspan="2" , , rowspan="2" , , Xīzàng () , Mandarin , Transcription based on English exonym ''Tibet'' , - , Bod () , Tibetan , , - , rowspan="2" ,

Ürümqi Ürümqi, , is the capital of the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China. With a census population of 4 million in 2020, Ürümqi is the second-largest city in China's northwestern interior after Xi'an, also the ...

, rowspan="2" , , rowspan="2" , () , Wūlǔmùqí () , Mandarin , rowspan="2" , Transcription based on Mandarin or Uyghur pronunciation , - , Ürümçi () , Uyghur , - , rowspan="2" ,

Xiamen Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

, Amoi (, , ) , , Ē-mûi , Hokkien , Based on historical English exonym ''Amoy'' , - , Shāmen , , Xiàmén () , Mandarin , Based on Mandarin pronunciation , - ,

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

, , Seian , Xī'ān , Mandarin , , - ,

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

, , Shinkyō , Xīnjiāng , Mandarin , , - , rowspan="2" ,

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

, , , Cháng Jiāng () , Mandarin , , - , , (Yōshikō) , Yángzǐ Jiāng () , Mandarin , For place names derived from the Chinese language, Japanese typically uses the kanji equivalents of the

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

that make up their respective endonyms, albeit with a Sino-Japanese pronunciation called ''on'' readings. Some place names, however, also have an approximate pronunciation (or transcription) of a historical English exonym if the area is internationally well-known, such as Beijing and Hong Kong, and such transcriptions tend to be more common than the ''on-yomi'' or the Mandarin transcriptions. Most place names derived from Mandarin also have a Japanese transcription of the Mandarin pronunciation. One detail to be noted, however, is that for the names of certain districts or areas in Hong Kong and Macau, the pronunciations of the Japanese transcriptions typically try to imitate the

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

pronunciation instead of the

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

pronunciation. The Chinese characters for the endonyms above are

simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized Chinese characters, character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of ...

and will only appear in the table above if they differ from the kanji shinjitai (the current set of Japanese kanji). Most transcriptions above can be written either in kanji or katakana.

Czech Republic

Denmark

Egypt

Germany

Greece

Iceland

India

Since India is home to many different languages and English is an official language in the country, Japanese exonyms are largely based on the English exonyms. The English exonyms are also familiar to many Indians.

Indonesia

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japanese exonyms for Italian place names are generally based on the Italian pronunciation rather than English exonyms.

Kazakhstan

Laos

Liechtenstein

Malaysia

Mexico

Myanmar

Netherlands

New Zealand

North Korea

Norway

Pakistan

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Russia

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

South Korea

While most

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n place names are derived from words in the Chinese language, Japanese can refer to a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

place name using Japanese ''on-yomi'' ( is in Japanese) or a pronunciation that imitates the Korean endonym name as closely as possible ( is or in Japanese). Many place names in Korea have at least two of the pronunciations, the first being based on the Japanese ''on-yomi'' or ''kun-yomi'' and the second being based on the Korean endonym, with the latter being made so that the Japanese could navigate and ask for directions more clearly to native Koreans. Korean-based pronunciations are usually written in katakana.

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Similar to Chinese exonyms, Japanese can either use a transcription based on Mandarin or the Japanese ''on-yomi'' of the endonym. However, there are some Japanese place names that are unrelated to the Chinese name of the place, but are actually based on the Taiwanese aboriginal languages.

Thailand

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States

Vietnam

References

*Nelson, Andrew N. (1962) ''The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary'' (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company)

External links

List of countries in Ateji
{{DEFAULTSORT:Exonyms, Japanese Japanese language Japanese culture-related lists Transliteration Japanese names

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...