Nippon

     Nippon is a transliteration of the Japanese word for Japan.  You may see it marked on goods made in Japan before WWII--the Second World War. After that goods made in Japan usually were marked "Made in Japan".  The mark is one way to tell how old something is, if it was made in Japan.
     "Nippon" is a reminder that we translate the names of  foreign places into English when we say them--and when we write them. The names of most foreign places, written in their own language, would not be recognizable to us. We wouldn't understand the characters in foreign alphabets, or the characters used in Oriental languages. We spell foreign names the way they sound to us--even foreign names that use the same alphabet that we do. We have even renamed some foreign places--the people who live there might not recognize the word we use for their country or city.