Gaijin

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This article is about the Japanese word for "foreigner." For the James Clavell novel, see Gai-Jin (novel).
The characters for Gaikokujin.

Gaijin (外人, IPA: [ˈɡaɪʥin]) or gaikokujin (外国人) are Japanese words meaning "foreigner." The words can refer to nationality or ethnicity. The word gaikokujin (外国人) is composed of gaikoku (外国, foreign country) and hito/jin (人, person), so the word literally means "foreign person." Gaijin (外人) is a common abbreviation of gaikokujin. The word gaijin was historically a positive term, reflecting the high status of Caucasian foreigners, to which it is mainly applied. In more recent times, the word has been interpreted by some as offensive and exclusionary.

Etymology and history

The word gaijin is of ancient provenance and can be traced in writing back to Heike Monogatari, written early in the 13th century:

外人もなき所に兵具をとゝのへ [1]
Assembling arms where there are no gaijin

Here, according to Kōjien, gaijin is used to refer to potential spies or people who should be regarded as enemies.[2] Another early reference is in Renri Hishō (c. 1349) by Nijō Yoshimoto, where it is used to refer to a (Japanese) person who is a stranger, not a friend.[2]

The word was initially not applied to foreigners, and historically, the Portuguese, the first Europeans to visit Japan, were known as nanbanjin (南蛮人, "southern barbarians")[3]. 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, "red-haired people"), a term still used in the Min Nan (Taiwanese) dialect of Chinese today.

When the Tokugawa shogunate was forced to open Japan to foreign contact, Westerners were commonly referred to as ijin (異人, "different people"), a shortened form of ikokujin (異国人, "different country people") or ihōjin (異邦人, "different motherland people"), terms previously used for Japanese from different feudal (that is, foreign) states.[citation needed] Keto (毛唐), literally meaning "hairy", was (and is) used as a pejorative for Chinese and Westerners.[4]

The word gaikokujin was only introduced and popularized by the Meiji government, and this gradually replaced ijin, ikokujin and ihōjin. As the empire of Japan extended to Korea and Taiwan, the term naikokujin (内国人, "inside country people") was used to refer to nationals of other territories of the Empire.[citation needed] While other terms fell out of use after World War II, gaikokujin remained as the official government term for non-Japanese people.

Usage

Foreigners in Japan in 2000 by citizenship.
Source:Japan Statistics Bureau[5]

While all forms of the word mean "foreigner" or "outsider", in practice gaikokujin and gaijin are mainly used to refer to Caucasians.[6][7][8][9] However the term is also applied to other non-Japanese, including ethnic Japanese born and raised in other countries.[10][11] Gaijin is also commonly used within Japanese professional wrestling to collectively refer to the visiting performers from the west who will frequently tour the country.

Japanese speakers commonly refer to non-Japanese as gaijin even while they are overseas. Also, people of Japanese descent native to other countries (especially those countries with large Japanese communities) might also call non-descendants gaijin, as a counterpart to nikkei.[10][11]

Historically, the word “gaijin” was a positive term, reflecting the high status, prestige and wealth of Caucasians.[12][7] The interpretation of the term as being positive or neutral in tone continues.[9][13][14] However, though the term may not be used with negative intent by most of Japanese speakers who use it,[15] it is seen as derogatory by some[16][17][18] and reflective of exclusionary attitudes.[15][7][19][20]

"While the term itself has no derogatory meaning, it emphasizes the exclusiveness of Japanese attitude and has therefore picked up pejorative connotations that many Westerners resent." Mayumi Itoh (1995)[14]

The term is included by various media on their list of terms best avoided.[21] Now that gaijin has become somewhat politically incorrect, it is common to refer to non-Japanese as gaikokujin.[7]

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 translated as "Mr" or "Ms." Gaijin-san may also be used as a more polite alternative to gaijin or gaikokujin.

Gaijin also appears frequently in Western literature and pop culture. It is the title of a novel by James Clavell, as well as a song by Nick Lowe.

Foreign residents in Japan

Main article: Demography of Japan § Foreign residents

References

  1. ^ 高木, 市之助 (1959). 日本古典文学大系: 平家物語 (in Japanese). 岩波書店. p. 123. ISBN 4-00-060032-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b "外人". Kōjien (5 ed.). Iwanami. 1998. ISBN 4000801112.
  3. ^ WWWJDIC (edict) entry for 南蛮人, [1]
  4. ^ "毛唐人". Kōjien (5 ed.). Iwanami. 1998. ISBN 4000801112.
  5. ^ Japan Statistics Bureau, accessed 8 December 2007
  6. ^ Koshiro, Yukiko (1999). Trans-Pacific Racisms and the U.S. Occupation of Japan. Columbia University Press. p. 254. ISBN 023111348X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ a b c d Lie, John (1999). Multiethnic Japan. Harvard University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0674013581. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Creighton, Millie (1997), "Soto Others and Uchi Others: Imaging racial diversity, imagining homogeneous Japan", in Weiner, Michael (ed.), Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, Routledge, p. 212, ISBN 0415130085
  9. ^ a b Befu, Harumi (2001). Hegemony of Homogeneity: An Anthropological Analysis of Nihonjinron. Trans Pacific Press. p. 76. ISBN 1876843055. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ a b Tsuda, Takeyuki (2003). Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Return. Columbia University Press. ISBN 023112838X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); line feed character in |publisher= at position 20 (help)
  11. ^ a b De Carvalho, Daniela (2003). Migrants and Identity in Japan and Brazil: The Nikkeijin. Routledge. ISBN 0700717056. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ Lie, John (2000), "The Discourse of Japaneseness", in Douglass,, Mike; Roberts, Glenda Susan (eds.), Japan and Global Migration: Foreign Workers and the advent of a multicultural society, Routledge, p. 7, ISBN 0415191106{{citation}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  13. ^ Kitahara, Michio (1989). Children of the Sun: the Japanese and the Outside World. Sandgate, Folkestone, England: Paul Norbury Publications. p. 117. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ a b Itoh, Mayumi (Summer 1996). "Japan's abiding sakoku mentality - seclusion from other countries - Economic Myths Explained". Orbis. 40 (3). Foreign Policy Research Institute / JAI Press Inc. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. ^ a b Wetherall, William (1983), "Foreigners in Japan", [[Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan]], vol. 2, Tokyo: Kodansha, pp. 313–4 {{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  16. ^ De Mente, Boye Lafayette (1994), Japanese Etiquette & Ethics In Business, McGraw-Hill Professional, p. 159, ISBN 0844285307 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ Hsu, Robert, The MIT Encyclopedia of the Japanese Economy, MIT Press, p. 195, ISBN 0844285307
  18. ^ Wetherall, William; de Vos, George A (1976), "Ethnic Minorities in Japan", in Veenhoven, Willem Adriaan; Crum Ewing, Winifred (eds.), Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey, Stichting Plurale, p. 384, ISBN ISBN 9024717795 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  19. ^ Sugihara, Kaoru (1993). Japan in the Contemporary Middle East. Routledge. p. 150. ISBN 0415075211. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Thomas Dillon, "Born and raised a 'gaijin', Japan Times, December 24, 2005
  21. ^ Gottlieb, Nanette (2005), Language and Society in Japan, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–8, ISBN 9780521532846

See also

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