Japanese exonyms

Japanese exonyms are the names of places in the Japanese language 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 generally tend to represent the endonym or the English exonym 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 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, or kanji characters used solely to represent pronunciation. However, the use of ateji today has become far less common, as katakana 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.

+LegendArchaic, obsoleteRare–Does not exist()Does not exist, but kept on list for linguistic interest, or to prevent common errors.

Based on endonyms EnglishJapaneseEndonymNotesKanaAtejiRomanizedNameLanguageAfghanistan ()Dari, PashtoSouth AfricaSouth AfricaEnglishAbbreviated ()AustraliaAustraliaEnglishAlso ()BrazilPortugueseBuenos AiresSpanishAbbreviated () ( means 'city')GermanyGermanIndonesiaIndonesianIrelandIrelandEnglishIsrael ()HebrewItalyItalianLiechtensteinGermanLondonLondonEnglishMyanmar ()BurmeseAlso () and ()New ZealandNew ZealandEnglishPakistan ()UrduPortugalPortugueseRussia ()RussianAbbreviated () ( means 'country')San FranciscoSan FranciscoEnglishAlso ()Seoul ()KoreanAlso ()SwitzerlandFrenchGermanThailand ()ThaiUnited Arab Emirates ()Arabic () means 'emirate', and () means 'union'.United States of AmericaUnited States of AmericaEnglishAbbreviated () ( means 'country'). See also ()Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.EnglishAbbreviated () ( means 'urban prefecture')

Based on English exonyms EnglishJapaneseEndonymNotesKanaAtejiRomanizedNameLanguageAlgeria ()ArabicBerberArgentinaSpanishAustriaGermanCambodia ()KhmerCzech RepublicCzechFrom English CzechoslovakiaDenmarkDanishEgypt ()ArabicIcelandIcelandicAlso ()Laos ()LaoMalaysiaMalayMexicoSpanishNorwayNorwegianPhilippinesFilipinoAbbreviated () ( means 'island')PolandPolishSaudi Arabia ()ArabicSpainSpanishSwedenSwedish

Based on Chinese names For place names derived from the Chinese language, Japanese typically uses the kanji equivalents of the Chinese characters that make up their respective endonyms, albeit with a Sino-Japanese pronunciation called on'yomi. 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 pronunciation instead of the Mandarin pronunciation.

Most Korean place names are also derived from words in the Chinese language, though Japanese can refer to a Korean place name using either Japanese on-yomi 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.

The Chinese characters for the endonyms below are kanji shinjitai, which may differ from the simplified Chinese characters used in China. Most can be written either in kanji or katakana. EnglishJapaneseMandarinEndonymNotesKanjiOn'yomiNot On'yomiPinyinBeijing, PekingLayout: Japanese word (pronunciation) – English word (pronunciation) 支那 (shina) – China (chaina) 北京 (pekin) – Pekin (pekin) 南京 (nankin) – Nankin (nankin) 廣東 (kanton) – Canton (kanton) 上海 (jōkai) – Shanghae (shanhai) 香港 (honkon) – Hongkong (honkon) 西蔵 (shibetsū) – Tibet (shibetto)Pronunciation based on historical English exonymBusanChinaPhilippinesGuangdong, CantonPronunciation based on historical English exonymHarbin, Usage examples:, Hong KongPronunciation based on English exonymIndiaUsually written with katakanaNorth Korea () means 'north'.South KoreaMacauPronunciation based on Portuguese exonymMyanmar「緬甸」("menden") can be read "biruma" but not "myanmā".Also () and ()Nanjing, NankingPronunciation based on historical English exonymOxford means 'ox' and means 'ford' in Chinese.PyongyangShanghaiShenzhenTai PoBased on Cantonese pronunciationTaipeiTaiwanTibetPronunciation based on the English exonymÜrümqiVietnamYangtze

Other EnglishJapanese nameEndonymNotesKanaAtejiRomanizedNameLanguageAustraliaごうしゅうAustraliaEnglish is derived from the in (), and means 'continent'.ChileSpanishFrom Portuguese Greece ()GreekFrom Portuguese HollywoodHollywoodEnglishLiterally 'holy woods'IcelandIcelandicLiterally 'ice island'. See also ().Kaohsiung ()MandarinFrom the Siraya name for the city.Kazakhstan ()KazakhFrom Russian ()Los AngelesLos AngelesEnglishAbbreviation of outdated Chinese () ( means 'urban prefecture')Myanmar ()BurmeseFrom Dutch or German . See also () and ().NetherlandsDutchFrom Portuguese ('Holland')Sakhalin ()RussianSan FranciscoSan FranciscoEnglishAlso ()Seoul ()KoreanLiterally means 'capital city'. See also ().TurkeyTurkishFrom Portuguese United KingdomUnited KingdomEnglishFrom Portuguese From Dutch means 'union' and means 'kingdom'.United States of AmericaUnited States of AmericaEnglishLiterally means 'federation'. See also ().Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ()Russian

Japanese exonyms

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