America As Rice Country

In Japanese, the United States is spelled 米国, which literally translates as “rice country.” You’re certainly not alone if you find this ironic; most Japanese people also think it’s peculiar. However, it’s unclear how many actually know the historical background. Given that I’ve found numerous Japanese people online asking the same question, it’s likely only a small percentage.

Here’s the backstory: Originally, the Japanese believed Americans referred to themselves as “meriken,” likely missing the initial “A” because the stress in pronunciation falls on the second syllable, “mé.” Incidentally, wheat flour imported from the U.S. is still called “meriken flour” in Japan today.

To represent “meriken” phonetically, the Japanese chose kanji characters: 米利堅. Coincidentally, the character 米 (pronounced “mé”) means “rice,” but its actual meaning wasn’t considered important at the time—only its sound mattered. The complete spelling was 米利堅国 (meriken country), with “country” (国) appended. Because this was somewhat cumbersome, people began abbreviating by dropping the middle two characters, resulting in 米国 or “rice country.”

Thus, what began as a misheard pronunciation of “American” was further complicated by an arbitrary kanji choice and a preference for brevity. Voilà! America became “Rice Country.”