Gaijin
 |
The characters for Gaikokujin. |
is an abbreviation of the
Japanese word , meaning "foreigner". The words can refer to
nationality or
ethnicity. The word is often the subject of debate as to its appropriateness, particularly in its shortened form.
The
kanji characters that make up the word
gaikokujin (外国人), taken individually, are
soto (外, outside),
kuni (国, country), and
hito (人, person). Together, they mean "a person who is not Japanese". The
colloquial gaijin (外人), on the other hand, contains only the characters
soto (外, outside) and
hito (人, person). Thus, there is significant ambiguity surrounding its meaning, resulting in various colloquial
usages.
"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 17
th 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", combining the characters for T'ang China and (red) hair) was used as a pejorative reference.
After the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji government popularized 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 other terms fell out of use after World War II,
gaikokujin remained as the official government term for non-Japanese people.
In Japanese, shortening of long words is common in colloquial usage. However, once the shortened term becomes popular and its colloquial meaning becomes widely recognised, the longer form of the word may completely drop out from common usage. For example the Japanese term
enjin sutoppu (from "engine stop", and meaning "stall") became
ensuto; and, in current usage,
ensuto is the standard written as well as spoken form. Analogous examples are "NATO" and "Fiat", which are preferred over the full versions.
Thus, the construction
gaikoku no kata (外国の方, roughly "a person from another country") is the most formal, followed by
gaikokujin, with
gaijin being the shortest, the most casual, and thus the least formal 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 mainly used to refer to white or black people, while Asian people from outside Japan are usually referred to by their country of origin:
Chūgoku-jin (中国人, Chinese person),
Kankoku-jin ("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 routine honorific
-san, roughly meaning "Mr" or "Ms".
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. Also, people of japanese descent native of other countries (especially those countries with large japanese communities) might also call non-descendants
gaijin, as a counterpart to
nikkei.
Gaijin also appears frequently in Western literature and pop culture. It is the title of a
novel by James Clavell. In the
2006 movie
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,
gaijin is defined as "outsider", although the Japanese word for "outsider" (someone who is not part of a group) is
bugaisha (部外者).
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 formal 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 almost akin to calling someone Mr. Foreigner and especially when combined with Japanese difficulties with intonation, can be objectionable to a neutral non-Japanese.
Some object to the word
gaijin on the grounds that it is inappropriately broad. 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." This exclusion from the Japanese "we" can be especially trying to those who have made great adjustments to their behavior to conform to rigorous standards of Japanese etiquette and especially considering that other major powers such as the UK and the US have inclusive conceptions of social identity.
Some English speakers point out that even in English the term "foreigner" or worse, "alien," 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.
*
Ethnic issues in Japan*
Ethnocentrism*
Japanese abbreviated and contracted words*
Sangokujin*
Tension between social groups in sento bathhouses*
Zainichi*
O-yatoi gaikokujin*
Allochtoon from
Dutch*
Laowai in
Mandarin Chinese*
Gweilo, a
Cantonese term.
*
Gringo, used in
Latin America.
*
The Case for "Gaijin as a Racist Word"*
Japan Today (Now Crisscross) Poll and Discussion: Do you think that the Japanese word 'gaijin' is racist or derogatory?*
Japan Times readers' forum on gaijin and "gaikokujin" (Registration required)*
Is the word 'Gaijin' derogatory?
