Why is Japan called "the land of the rising sun"?

Actually, there is a famous anecdote about this very question. As the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and consequently most Japanese live on the eastern side of Japan, they see the sun rise from the fertile womb of the sea, only to see it disappear into the western mountains. Only the 'backwards' (ura-nihon) Japanese ever saw it sink into the Japanese Sea. 1500 years ago, a Japanese representative from the Japanese Empire visited the Chinese Empire with the greetings "To the Kingdom of the Setting of the Sun, from the Kingdom of the Rising of the Sun...." Needless to say, the Chinese ruler at the time took grave offense at the notion that the Sun was somehow borne in Japan, yet died in China.

Nevertheless, every New Year's, millions of Japanese will climb to the highest point nearest their home and watch the first sunrise of the year. The symbolism, as well as the feeling of actually being bathed in the sun on a cold winter morning, brings strength to the soul.

Being situated in the Orient (Latin for East), in that geographically it lies in the East; and as the Sun rises in the East, and sets in the West; Japan could be described as the land which lies in the geographical region which is also where the sun rises... or "land of the rising sun". It is also a reference to the national flag which sees a sun rising from the horizon (which can only happen at the eastern horizon).

China's name, in Chinese, is "center country", and due to its huge size, it dominated Asian culture for thousands of years.

In the Chinese/asian world-view, Japan was simply "the land of the Sun's origin". That is, the easternmost country in Asia. This is, in fact, where the names "Japan" (English/Chinese version) and "Nihon/Nippon" (Japanese version) come from. They are various pronunciations of the Chinese/Japanese ideographs for "sun's origin".

In short, Japan is Asia's "land of the rising sun" for the same reason that Americans refer to the Maine>Florida coastline as "the East Coast", and feel safe that no American will think "the East Coast" refers to some part of Brazil, Asia, or Madagascar.

its just a phrase....the earth is round and rotates/resvolves around the sun in a particular fixed direction...so any country which is on the eastern side of any another country , will be the land of rising sun when the sun rises above that country....

why is philippines called pacific ring of fire

When Japan was first called "Land of The Rising Sun", United States or any of the islands between United States and Japan were not known. Keep in mind, Earth in this time was considered to be flat so Japan was thought to be the furthermost eastern land. Since the sun raises in the East, Japan was said to be where the sun rises. The kanji symbols that make up Japan's name means "sun-origin". It was not called "The Land Of The Rising Sun" because of it's flag (the flag is fairly new as it was designed in 1870), as much as the flag was designed because of Japan being called the "Land of The Rising Sun".