Answer:
The expression "Land of the Rising Sun" is actually a translation of the name the Japanese use to refer to their country, Nihon. It's written using the kanji characters 日 (ni) which means "day", and 本 (hon), meaning "origin".
Nihon, then, would be the country of origin of the sun. It's a term that could refer to the geographical location of the country on the edge of Asia, but the name could also have a religious meaning associated with the sun goddess Amaterasu, believed to be an ancestor of the imperial lineage.
A name as old as Japan
In early Japanese history, Yamato was the name used for the islands. Most important was the kingdom around Nara and Kyoto, which went on to form the Japanese empire.
