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3.4. Why is America called bei?

Sign: 在日米軍基地 "US Military Base in Japan"
The word Bei or Beikoku used as an abbreviation of "The United States of America" actually means `rice' and is written with the kanji 米. However this has nothing to do with rice production. It originates from a kanji method of writing Amerika (America, the USA) as 亜米利加. This kind of kanji applied to a pre-existing word is called ateji. 1.2.6. Why do some gairaigo words have kanji? has more on ateji applied to foreign words.

The reason Japanese uses the "me" kanji (米) of Amerika rather than the `a' one (亜) may be because Japanese uses the `a' kanji as an abbreviation of Ajia (asia): this originates from the kanji writing of Ajia as 亜細亜.

Some other countries are similarly often written as a single kanji, especially in newspaper headlines.
Kanji abbreviation Full kanji writing Country name in roomaji Country name in English Notes
英 英吉利 Igirisu England / United Kingdom See also 4.2. Which Japanese words originate from Portuguese?.
米 亜米利加 Amerika United States of America
露 露西亜 Roshia Russia
仏 仏蘭西 Furansu France
独 独逸 Doitsu Germany
蘭 和蘭 Oranda Holland / The Netherlands
欧 欧羅巴 Yooroppa Europe
印 印度 Indo India
豪 豪斯多拉利 Oosutoraria Australia
加 加奈陀 Kanada Canada
西 西班牙 Supein Spain
伊 伊太利 Itaria Italy
亜 亜細亜 Ajia Asia

Web links

An extensive list of ateji for countries and cities can be found at this web site (in Japanese)

sci.lang.japan FAQ / 3. Word origins

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