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As Japan is 日本, the origin of the sun or "Land of the Rising Sun" as it's
sometimes put in English, would 日末 make sense as the "Land of the Setting Sun"
as a west to Japan's east?

For instance, British Columbia (the westernmost Canadian province) is on the
opposite side of the Pacific and does has a setting sun on its flag to
represent being on the west coast of North America in the same way Japan's
rising sun flag derives from being on the east coast of Asia.

Would it make sense to use 日末 as a figurative way to refer to British Columbia
or some other place associated with "west" such as Portugal, Peru, or
California? Or do native Japanese speaker not think about the implicit
association with "east" in the name of their country in a way that would make
sense to think of a western counterpart (Japan obviously isn't east or west to
anyone who lives there)

If it does make sense, what would be the correct reading of 日末?

If a different kanji in place of 末 would better convey the sense of a setting
sun counterpart to 日本 instead, that's a reasonable answer too. I only arrived
at 末 by looking up 本 in Wikitionary and checking its antonyms.

![Flag of Japan](https://i.stack.imgur.com/U3KPI.png) ![Flag of British
Columbia](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5kdKy.png)
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translation meaning kanji pronunciation
Would 日末 be a reasonable opposite to 日本?
Neither Wiktionary
([English](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AB)
/
[Japanese](http://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AB))
nor
[jisho.org](http://jisho.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keyword=%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AB)
contain any reference to **日末** , so I don't think that it's possible to use
this kanji combination as a word.

Swapping the kanji around, there _is_ an entry on
[jisho.org](http://jisho.org/word/%E6%9C%AB%E6%97%A5) for **末日** (read as
まつじつ), but the definition is "last day (of a month)" rather than "land of the
setting sun". I'm not sure how common this word is, but it's also mentioned on
[WWWJDIC](http://www.edrdg.org/jmdictdb/cgi-
bin/entr.py?svc=jmdict&sid=&q=1525570) and crops up a few times on [Japanese
Wiktionary](http://ja.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5%3A%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&profile=default&search=%22%E6%9C%AB%E6%97%A5%22&fulltext=Search).
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日末 'himatsu' would mean "end of the day" if anything

if you wanted to say (something of the) setting sun 落日 (raku jitsu) might be
appropriate

Check out <http://jisho.org/search/setting%20sun>
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> Or do native Japanese speaker not think about the implicit association with
> "east" in the name of their country in a way that would make sense to think
> of a western counterpart (Japan obviously isn't east or west to anyone who
> lives there)

This is true. Many people know, as a piece of knowledge, that the etymology of
日本 has something to do with _east_ or _sunrise_. But it's highly unlikely to
coin a new country name directly using this knowledge. There is no such
Japanese word as 日末, but when I see this, the first reasonable interpretation
of this "word" would be "the end of Japan" (because 日 by itself means Japan
today), and then, "the end of the day", "the last day (of a week/event/etc)",
etc. Associating it with _west_ would be too difficult.

There are many modern and old Japanese words that are related to 'sunset' or
'dusk' (日没, 落日, 日暮れ, 黄昏, ...), but I don't know how to use these words to
refer to an actual country without being rude. Many of these words are
strongly associated with 'downhill', 'decadence', etc. But if you insist, I
would say 日暮 may be the safest -- it actually appears in the name of a [real
place](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9A%AE%E9%87%8C%E7%94%BA), and
some people have kanji 暮 in their names, and I can feel a certain beauty of
sunset in this word.

If you are making a work of fiction and only need an archaic alternative of
_west_ , [read
this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthly_Branches#Directions).
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