French version
Wa倭keywords: state related topics: Prince Shotoku , 5 Japanese kings , Himiko , Yamato dynasty related web sites: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~eh6k-ymgs/book/furuta/furuta.htm explanation: Old name of Japan used by Chinese and probably by Japanese themselves. When they had discovered that the character used has a bad connotation (it means "small and ugly"), there were pressed to modify the country name to "Nippon". This change occurred during the reign of Prince Shotoku in the 7th century but "Wa" is still used nowadays by Koreans and Chinese as a derogatory term like "Jap" by Americans. | |