The word Japan is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many

languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon (About this sound にっぽん) and
Nihon (About this sound にほん). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日
本.

During the third-century Three Kingdoms period, before the name of Dai Nippon
Teikoku (literally "Great Japan(ese) Empire") came into use, Japan was known as Wa
(倭) or Wakoku (倭國). At that time, Japan was inhabited by the Yayoi people who
lived in Kyushu up to the Kanto region, and 倭 can be translated as "dwarf" or
"submissive".[1] Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation, and
officially changed the characters they used to spell the native name for Japan,
Yamato, replacing the 倭 ("dwarf") character for Wa with the homophone 和
("peaceful, harmonious"). Wa 和 was often combined with 大 ("great") to form the
name 大和, which is read as Yamato[2][3] (see also Jukujikun for a discussion of
this type of spelling where the kanji and pronunciations are not directly related).
The earliest record of 日本 appears in the Chinese Old Book of Tang, which notes
the change in 703 when Japanese envoys requested that its name be changed. It is
believed that the name change within Japan itself took place sometime between 665
and 703.[4] During the Heian period, 大和 was gradually replaced by 日本, which was
first pronounced with the Chinese reading Nippon and later as Nifon, and then in
modern usage Nihon, reflecting shifts in phonology in Early Modern Japanese.[1]
Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' in circa 1300, based on the Chinese name,[5]
probably 日本國; 'sun source country' (compare modern Min Nan pronunciation ji̍t pún
kok). In the 16th century Malacca, Portuguese traders first heard from Malay and
Indonesian the names Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun.[6] In 1577 it was first recorded in
English spelled Giapan.[6] At the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese
missionaries came to Japan and created grammars and dictionaries of Middle
Japanese. The 1603–1604 dictionary Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam has 2 entries:
nifon[7] and iippon.[8] Since then many derived names of Japan appeared on ancient
European maps.