The idea of case being expressed by a particle stuck at the end of the word in not so original.
Witness constructions like "Fred's beer", "day's work" and "Mary's lamb".
The japanese no as far as I can see it (not much right now) is simply the marker of the genitive case, hence:
nihongo-no hon -> a book of Japanese (language)
watashi-no kutsu -> my shoe
Latin does it pretty much the same way: "anni finis" -> the end of the year. Japanese seems easier because for example in Latin there are five different ways of making genitives, while in Japanese you get by with "no" and are happy.
Of course, I don't know much Japanese at this point, so correct me and establish truth.