Why is America called bei?

Sign: 在日米軍基地 "US Military Base in Japan"

The kanji 米 (Bei) used to mean "The United States of America" in words like beikoku (米国), "America", or beigun (米軍), "American military", is actually the kanji for 'rice'. Why is it used to mean "America"? This originates from writing Amerika (America) in kanji as 亜米利加. Here the 米 kanji is the second kanji in the word. This style of writing dates from an era in which kanji was used more frequently than now. Writing a non-Chinese derived word using phonetic kanji is called ateji (宛字). Why do some gairaigo words have kanji? has more on ateji applied to foreign words.

The reason Japanese uses the "me" kanji (米) of Amerika rather than the 'a' one (亜) may be because Japanese uses 亜 as an abbreviation of Asia, from its kanji writing 亜細亜 (Ajia).

Some other countries are similarly often written as a single kanji, especially in newspaper headlines and other abbreviated words.

Kanji abbreviation	Full kanji writing	Country name in rōmaji	Country name in English
英	英吉利	Igirisu	England / United Kingdom
米	亜米利加	Amerika	United States of America
露	露西亜	Roshia	Russia
仏	仏蘭西	Furansu	France
独	独逸	Doitsu	Germany
蘭	和蘭	Oranda	Holland / The Netherlands
欧	欧羅巴	Yōroppa	Europe
印	印度	Indo	India
豪	豪斯多拉利	Ōsutoraria	Australia
加	加奈陀	Kanada	Canada
西	西班牙	Supein	Spain
伊	伊太利	Itaria	Italy
亜	亜細亜	Ajia	Asia

The names Igirisu for the United Kingdom and Yōroppa for Europe originate from Portuguese. See Which Japanese words come from Portuguese?

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