Meaning

noun a string of more than 3,000 islands to the east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean

noun a constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building

noun lacquerware decorated and varnished in the Japanese manner with a glossy durable black lacquer

originEtymology tree Hokkien 日本 /Ji̍t-púnbor. Malay Jepangbor. Portuguese Japãobor. ▲ Malay Jepangbor. Dutch Japanbor. English Japan First attested in English as Giapan in Richard Willes's 1577 The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies (cited in Peter C. Mancall's Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery, pp. 156–57), translating a 19 February 1565 letter of the Portuguese Jesuit…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0