Names of Japan
The word Japan is an exonym, and is used by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nihon and Nippon. They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本. Since the third century, Chinese called the people of the Japanese archipelago something like "ˀWâ", which can also mean "dwarf" or "submissive". Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation, and officially changed the characters they used to spell the native name for Japan, Yamato, replacing the 倭 character for Wa with the homophone 和. Wa 和 was often combined with 大 to form the name 大和, which is read as Yamato. The earliest record of 日本 appears in the Chinese Old Book of Tang, which notes the change in 703 when Japanese envoys requested that its name be changed. It is believed that the name change within Japan itself took place sometime between 665 and 703. Wikipedia