Exonym and endonym
A third reason why a country might call another place a different name is because a language can borrow a name from another language. Even though Japan is called Nippon or Nihon in Japanese, the word passed on to Europe through many different languages, all of which were very different from Japanese. Marco Polo heard about Kublai Khan sending soldiers to Cipangu, which in Chinese characters is 日本, which means "Sun's Origin". When the Portuguese arrived in Japan in the mid-16th century, who were the first Europeans to directly trade with Japan, they called the country Japão based on an old Malay word, which was borrowed from a southern Chinese dialect. Thus, most other countries call the country Japan. A few exceptions are Chinese, which call it Rìběn based on the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese characters, and Korean, which call it Ilbon based on the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters. Also, while many countries call European cities by their endonym, including Roma, Praha, Köln, and Napoli, the English names of many European cities are noticeably different, which are called Rome, Prague, Cologne, and Naples in the same order. These names were borrowed from French. Since French was the official language of England from the Norman invasion to King Henry V, many of the cities names came into English through French.