The kanji “米国” literally means “Rice Country,” which might seem confusing. But here’s the real reason:
1. Kanji Abbreviations for Foreign Countries
Japanese often uses kanji abbreviations for country names, especially based on Chinese transliterations. These are usually made by picking one representative character from the longer transliterated name.
- The full old transliteration of “America” in kanbun (Classical Chinese) was 亜米利加 (A-me-ri-ka).
- From that, the character 米 (bei) was chosen to represent “America.”
So:
- 亜米利加 → shortened to 米国 (“Country of 米”)
This kind of shortening is common. Examples:
- 英国 (UK) → from 英吉利 (Eikoku for “England”)
- 仏国 (France) → from 仏蘭西 (Furansu)
- 独国 (Germany) → from 独逸 (Doitsu)
2. Why 米?
The character 米 was not chosen because of its meaning (“rice”) but because it phonetically matches the “me” sound in America. In historical transliteration:
- “America” → Ame-ri-ka → 亜米利加
- So 米 represents the “me” part of the name.
Summary:
- 米国 (Beikoku) = “United States of America”
- 米 is from the old transliteration 亜米利加 (America).
- It’s a phonetic abbreviation, not related to rice.