Talk:Gaijin/Old version (reference)
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Here's the last version I edited Exploding Boy 02:45, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Etymology and history
"Gaikokujin" (literally "outside-country-person") and its shortened form, "gaijin," are relatively new words in Japanese. Historically, the Portuguese, the first Europeans to visit Japan, were known as nanbanjin (南蛮人 literally: "southern barbarians"), because their ships came sailing in from the south, and because these sailors were perceived as unrefined by the Japanese. When British and Dutch adventurers such as William Adams arrived in Japan fifty years later in the early 17th century, they were usually known as kōmōjin (紅毛人, literally "red-haired people").
When the Tokugawa shogunate was forced to open Japan to foreign contact, Westerners were commonly referred to as ijin (異人 literally "different person"), a shortened form of ikokujin (異国人 literally "different country person") or ihōjin (異邦人 literally: "different motherland person") which were previously used for Japanese from different feudal (that is, foreign) states. Keto (毛唐, combining the characters for T'ang China and (red) hair) was used as a pejorative reference.
After the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji government introduced the term gaikokujin to refer to foreigners, and this gradually replaced ijin, ikokujin and ihōjin. As the empire of Japan extended to Korea and Taiwan, the term naikokujin (内国人 literally "inside country person") was used to refer to nationals of other territories of the Empire. While this term fell out of use after World War II, gaikokujin remained as the official government term for non-Japanese people, and other terms fell from use."
[edit] Usage
In Japanese, the shortening of long words is common in colloquial usage. However, once the usage of the term become popular and its colloquial meaning become widely recognised, the longer form of the word completely drop out from the usage. For example Enjin Sutoru (Engine Stall) became "Ensuto" in Japanese and, in current usage, "ensuto" is not only the standard reference in oral conversation, it is the standard reference in written form. The similar usage in english are words such as NATO or DVD, which serve the similar purpose.
Thus, the construction gaikoku no kata (外国の方, roughly "a person from another country") is the most polite, followed by gaikokujin, with gaijin being the shortest, the most casual, and thus the least polite form. There are subtle differences in nuance in the choice of phrasing.
Additionally, while all forms of the word mean "foreigner," in practice gaikokujin and gaijin are used mainly to refer to white people, while Asian people and other non-whites are usually referred to by their country of origin: Chūgoku-jin (中国人, Chinese person), Kankoku-jin (韓国人, Korean person), Indo-jin (インド人, Indian person), and so on.
People of Japanese descent living in or born in foreign countries are known as Nikkei-jin (persons of Japanese descent), while children of mixed (Japanese and non-Japanese) parentage are known as hāfu ("half").
The term gaijin is also used as a form of address in some situations, in which case it is commonly combined with the honorific -san, meaning, roughly, mister, miss, or Mrs. Gaijin-san may also be used as a politer alternative to gaijin or gaikokujin.
The use of gaijin is not limited to "foreigners" in Japan; Japanese speakers commonly refer to non-Japanese as gaijin even when on trips overseas.
[edit] Controversy
The use of the word gaijin is often a source of controversy. While the term is not necessarily pejorative, its use can be considered offensive in some circumstances, in part because it is a contraction (and thus less polite than other terms), and in part because of mixed perceptions of its specific meaning.
For example, while a non-Japanese person might not object to being referred to as gaikoku no kata (roughly, a person from another country), in some situations—such as a business setting—gaijin would be inappropriately informal.
Since there are specific rules for polite speech in Japanese, and since Japanese people are sensitive to differences in nuance of different speech styles, the use of the word gaijin is usually deliberate, that is, it is either deliberately deployed as a pejorative—as in the terms baka-gaijin (stupid foreigner!) or gaijin-kusai (literally, "it stinks of foreigners"); only used when it is assumed that any non-Japanese present will not understand what is being said—asoko no gaijin ("that foreigner over there"); or used only in situations where its intended meaning—whether neutral or otherwise—will not be ambiguous. The standard form in government and media is gaikokujin.
Some non-Japanese also object to the use of gaijin as a form of address (as in gaijin-san). It is common in Japanese to address others by title rather than name. For example, customers are customarily addressed as O-kyaku-sama ("honourable customer"); a person who works in a bookshop might be addressed as Honya-san (Mr. Bookseller); a butcher might be addressed as Nikuya-san (Miss Butcher), and so on. However, addressing others by a physical trait is not usually seen as polite. For example, it would not be acceptable, in most cases, to address someone as Debu-san (Mr. Fatty) or Megane-san (Ms. Eyeglasses). The term gaijin-san is akin to calling someone Mrs. Foreigner, and is therefore often perceived as rude.
Some object to the word gaijin on the grounds that it is inappropriately broad. In this sense, a parallel can be drawn with the English term "Asian," since in both cases the words are used to describe people from dozens of widely varying countries, cultures, linguistic traditions, and ethnic backgrounds, which may be interpreted as ignorant and/or racist. On the other hand, in English, "Asian" may be seen as preferrable to the older term "Oriental," which is increasingly being seen as racist and politically incorrect, particularly in North America. Just as in most cases English speakers do not use the word "Asian" with pejorative intent, Japanese speakers often use gaijin as a convenient catch-all descriptive term. Indeed, many foreigners in Japan refer to themselves and each other as gaijin in certain situations, such as in conversation with Japanese friends, just as many people might describe themselves as "Asian" when speaking English.
Others object to the term based on a literal reading of the kanji with which it is written. While Japanese words, like English ones, are most often more than the sum of their parts, and while the etymology of the word "foreigner" is in fact similar (coming from the Latin foranus, meaning "on the outside"), it is felt by some that the term is overused in the Japanese context, whereas an English speaker might prefer other terms in certain situations. Specifically, since even long-term ex-pats in Japan are referred to as gaijin, many foreigners feel that the word symbolizes their cultural and social exclusion from the Japanese community and the reluctance of some Japanese to accept Japanese citizens of non-Japanese ethnicity and of the government to acknowledge persons of non-Japanese ethnicity as citizens even if they are born in Japan. In contrast, for example, a person from Japan who is a long-term resident of Canada might be called "Japanese-Canadian," "of Japanese descent," or even simply "Canadian." It is also pointed out that gaijin can suggest "stranger," "outsider," or even "enemy."
Similarly, some English speakers point out that even in English the term "foreigner" can have negative implications in certain contexts. For example, it would not usually be considered polite to refer to someone as "the foreign man," or to describe someone as being "foreign," particularly when that person is a long-term resident or even citizen of the country. It is pointed out that such phrasing is often chosen for reasons of racism (for example, it is a running gag on the television sitcom That Seventies Show for the only non-white character to be described as "the foreign one").
- Sympathetic to this -- I wish you'd signed your name (is it Exploding Boy?), anyway whomever you are, what you wrote above seems to me a perhaps long but essentially important summary of issues surrounding the word "gaijin." In brief, I don't believe the question of whether "gaijin" is derogatory or not falls exclusively within the scope of Japanese dictionaries etc., it is for example not for Westerners alone to decide whether "Jap" is but a simple contraction of "Japanese." RomaC 12:16, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
