17813
Just saw this picture:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/OZqyP.jpg)

Notice the _ニッポン_.

Why is it written in Kana?!

Isn't that like super bizarre?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-14T16:04:21.053
17799
2014-07-16T01:13:34.333
5518
question
kana
ニッポン? Why Kana?
"日本" is normally pronounced as ニホン/nihon at the present day. In this case,
however, the flag designer is aiming at having audiences pronounce it as
ニッポン/nippon explicitly.

At international sport matches including football, Japanese supporter
traditionally prefer "Nippon" for the cheering call, like "Nippon Cha-Cha-Cha"
(c.f. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fagu9L2AntA>). If you use "Nihon" for
the cheering call alternatively, it would be not good rhythm.
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2014-07-14T16:37:33.277
17800
2014-07-14T16:37:33.277
6802
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answer
I would say there's no one specific answer here. It's a stylistic choice, made
by the designer based on the target audience and circumstances and cultural
norms and expectations and/or the breaking down of same. The choice between
kanji, hiragana and katakana is often an arbitrary one, and especially in
advertising and design the choice is usually made on the way it will make the
audience feel and perceive the message.

In this case, ニッポン just feels a lot more energetic and apropos then 日本. That's
all, I think. Just try screaming it:

> がんばろう、ニッポン！！

Anything else would feel more like:

> 頑張りましょう、日本の皆さん。

Not quite the same feel... ;)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-14T17:13:10.267
17801
2014-07-14T17:13:10.267
88
17799
answer
I suppose this banner struck OP as "super bizarre" for either of the two
reasons:

  1. Because you are a diligent Japanese learner who only learned how traditional textbooks say about when to use kanji or kana.
  2. Because you have a kind of fascination with kanji, as a design element. You regard kanji as cool, and kana as mere, dull, phonetic symbols.

Whichever is the case with you, the fact is that this kind of "kana-fication"
is very common, and "がんばれ、ニッポン", is recognized as the standard catchphrase of
cheering up Japanese national sport teams.

Actually, we're talking about two facts here: "にっぽん is better than にほん (
_acoustically_ )", and "ニッポン is better than 日本 ( _visually_ )". I think both
are true and important. "にっぽん" is definitely the standard pronunciation here.

However it seems to me that OP's main interest is the _visual_ impression of
this banner. And unfortunately, the mere fact that にっぽん _sounds_ better,
acoustically, does not fully explain why this is written in _katakana_.
Usually modern Japanese uses hiragana, not katakana, to instruct the readings.
And we all know how to read 日本 in situations like this; there is no practical
need to instruct how to read this in a banner. If 日本 looked better than ニッポン,
they'd absolutely use 日本 because this is intended to be seen by millions of
Japanese soccer fans who love shouting _Nippon! Nippon! Nippon!_

That's why I believe this ニッポン is in katakana mainly for visual reasons.

I'm not a native English speaker so forgive me if some adjectives which follow
are weird. Anyway, to me, "がんばれ、日本", as written in kanji, looks a bit uncool.
It's dull, uninteresting, too plain. To us Japanese, "日本" is simply the plain,
matter-of-fact way of expressing "Japan", and I can hardly feel the
attractiveness, which is needed for slogans like this.

We always see this kind of kana usage in comics, ads or lyrics written in
Japanese. Using katakana or hiragana for words, which are normally written in
kanji, has a special visual effect. Just like **ALL UPPERCASE** or
**all_lowercase** or **lowerCamelCase** gives different impressions in English
comics, logos and ads.

It's hard to generalize the impression of katakana as a design element,
though. Simply putting "this is a equivalent of bold face in English" is not
enough. Sometimes it's simply
[impressive/cool](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AD%E7%A9%BA%E3%83%A2%E3%83%A8%E3%82%A6),
sometimes
[robotic/toneless](http://dic.pixiv.net/a/%EF%BD%B2%EF%BD%B2%EF%BE%8A%EF%BE%85%EF%BD%BC%EF%BE%80%EF%BE%9E%EF%BE%85%EF%BD%B0),
sometimes
[exotic/peculiar](https://www.nissin.com/jp/products/brands/currymeshi/),
sometimes
[mysterious/magical](http://nippon1.jp/consumer/hotarunonikki/)/horror,
sometimes nostargic/archaic, sometimes businesslike. You have to be very
familiar with Japanese language to fully understand this.

**TLDR:** In this specific case, I'd say that ニッポン was chosen instead of 日本,
for two reasons: a) because ニッポン looks like a foreign word, and thus
symbolizes Japanese people performing internationally (cf.
[サムライ・ブルー](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_national_football_team), not
侍ブルー), and, b) because they wanted ニッポン to look like something repeated in a
loud voice, closer to _Ole!_ , _Hurray!_ , etc.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-15T11:28:17.237
17813
2014-07-16T01:13:34.333
2014-07-16T01:13:34.333
5010
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answer