Gaijin
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese
word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien". This word is a short form of gaikokujin , which literally means "person (or people) from outside of the country". The word is composed of two kanji
: , meaning "outside"; and , meaning "person". Thus, the word technically means "outsider". The word can refer to nationality
, race, or ethnicity, but in Japanese these are generally conflated, as the nation is considered by them to be composed of a single ethnic group.
Some modern commentators feel that the word is now negative or pejorative
in connotation and thus offensive. Other observers indicate that the word can also be used neutrally or positively. One scholar suggests that the term has become politically incorrect
and is avoided now by some Japanese television broadcasters. The uncontroversial , "foreign-country person", is commonly used instead.
Here, gaijin is used to refer to outsiders and potential enemies. 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. The Noh
play, Kurama tengu also has a dialog, where a servant objects to the appearance of a traveling monk:
Here, gaijin also means an outsider/stranger or an unknown/unfamiliar person.
Historically, the Portuguese
, the first Europe
ans to visit Japan, were known as nanbanjin (literally "southern barbarians"). 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 ("red-haired people"), a term still used in Hokkien
Chinese
today.
When the Tokugawa shogunate
was forced to open Japan to foreign contact, Westerners were commonly referred to as ijin ("different people"), a shortened form of ikokujin ("different country person") or ihōjin ("different motherland people"), terms previously used for Japanese from different feudal (that is, foreign) states. Ketō, literally meaning "hairy Tang
", was (and is) used as a pejorative for Chinese and Westerners.
The word gaikokujin (外国人) is composed of gaikoku (foreign country) and jin (person), so the word literally means "foreign-country person". The term was introduced and popularized by the Meiji government (1868–1912), and this gradually replaced ijin, ikokujin and ihōjin. As the empire of Japan extended to Korea
and Taiwan
, the term naikokujin ("inside country people") was used to refer to nationals of other territories of the Empire of Japan
. While other terms fell out of use after World War II
, gaikokujin remained as the official government term for non-Japanese people. The modern word gaijin is held by some writers to be a simple contraction of gaikokujin.
While all forms of the word mean "foreigner" or "outsider", in practice gaikokujin and gaijin are commonly used to refer to racially non-Japanese groups, principally Caucasians. However the term is also sometimes applied to ethnic Japanese born and raised in other countries. 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 people 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
.
Historically, some usage of the word "gaijin" referred respectfully to the prestige and wealth of Caucasians or the power of western businesses. This interpretation of the term as positive or neutral in tone continues for some. However, though the term may be used without negative intent by many Japanese speakers, it is seen as derogatory by some and reflective of exclusionary attitudes.
The term is avoided by mainstream Japanese media whenever possible.
Now that gaijin has become somewhat politically incorrect, it is common to refer to non-Japanese as gaikokujin. However if the honorific san is attached to the word Gaijin as Gaijin-san, some see it as a friendly expression.
Gaijin also appears frequently in Western literature and pop culture. It forms the title of such novels as Marc Olden's Gaijin (New York: Arbor House, 1986), James Melville's Go gently, gaijin (New York : St. Martin's Press, 1986), James Kirkup's Gaijin on the Ginza (London: Chester Springs, 1991) and James Clavell's Gai-Jin (New York: Delacorte Press, 1993)
, as well as a song by Nick Lowe
. It is the title of feature films such as Tizuka Yamazaki's Gaijin - Os Caminhos da Liberdade (1980) and Gaijin - Ama-me Como Sou (2005), as well as animation shorts such as Fumi Inoue's Gaijin (2003). It is a recurring word in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
(2006), where it is used to refer to both the main character, an American, and his love interest. The author Ben Mezrich
uses the word "gaijin" frequently in his book, Ugly Americans. This is a term used to describe the society of Americans making their living from the Japanese stock market.
. Approximately 531,000 non-Japanese in Japan departed the country after the disaster.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien". This word is a short form of gaikokujin , which literally means "person (or people) from outside of the country". The word is composed of two kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
: , meaning "outside"; and , meaning "person". Thus, the word technically means "outsider". The word can refer to nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
, race, or ethnicity, but in Japanese these are generally conflated, as the nation is considered by them to be composed of a single ethnic group.
Some modern commentators feel that the word is now negative or pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
in connotation and thus offensive. Other observers indicate that the word can also be used neutrally or positively. One scholar suggests that the term has become politically incorrect
Politically incorrect
The phrase "politically incorrect" may refer to:* Someone or something which does not meet a standard of political correctness* Politically Incorrect, a late-night U.S. political talk show* Politically Incorrect, a German political blog...
and is avoided now by some Japanese television broadcasters. The uncontroversial , "foreign-country person", is commonly used instead.
Etymology and history
The word gaijin is of ancient provenance and was initially not applied to foreigners. It 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
- Assembling arms where there are no gaijinThe 13th-century pronunciation of the characters 外人 is debated; it may have been kotobito (ことびと), udokihito (うどきひと) or gwaijin (ぐわいじん). The spelling gaijin is used here for continuity.
Here, gaijin is used to refer to outsiders and potential enemies. Another early reference is in Renri Hishō
Renri Hisho
is a text on renga poetics. It was written by Nijō Yoshimoto around 1349. It had a great influence on the development of renga.-Development:Yoshimoto learned waka from Ton'a and renga from Gusai and Kyūsei. While he authored several treatises on waka, it is for renga that he is best known. By the...
(c. 1349) by Nijō Yoshimoto
Nijo Yoshimoto
, son of regent Nijō Michihira, was a Japanese kugyō , waka poet and renga master of the early Muromachi period .Yoshimoto's wife gave birth to Nijō Moroyoshi...
, where it is used to refer to a (Japanese) person who is a stranger, not a friend. The Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...
play, Kurama tengu also has a dialog, where a servant objects to the appearance of a traveling monk:
- 源平両家の童形たちのおのおのござ候ふに、かやうの外人は然るべからず候
- A gaijin doesn't belong here, where children from the Genji and Heike families are playing.
Here, gaijin also means an outsider/stranger or an unknown/unfamiliar person.
Historically, the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans to visit Japan, were known as nanbanjin (literally "southern barbarians"). When British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
adventurers such as William Adams
William Adams (sailor)
William Adams , also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama and Miura Anjin , was an English navigator who travelled to Japan and is believed to be the first Englishman ever to reach that country...
arrived in Japan fifty years later in the early 17th century, they were usually known as kōmōjin ("red-haired people"), a term still used in Hokkien
Hokkien
Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere....
Chinese
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....
today.
When the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
was forced to open Japan to foreign contact, Westerners were commonly referred to as ijin ("different people"), a shortened form of ikokujin ("different country person") or ihōjin ("different motherland people"), terms previously used for Japanese from different feudal (that is, foreign) states. Ketō, literally meaning "hairy Tang
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
", was (and is) used as a pejorative for Chinese and Westerners.
The word gaikokujin (外国人) is composed of gaikoku (foreign country) and jin (person), so the word literally means "foreign-country person". The term was introduced and popularized by the Meiji government (1868–1912), and this gradually replaced ijin, ikokujin and ihōjin. As the empire of Japan extended to Korea
Korea under Japanese rule
Korea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Japanese rule ended in 1945 shortly after the Japanese defeat in World War II....
and Taiwan
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
, the term naikokujin ("inside country people") was used to refer to nationals of other territories of the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
. While other terms fell out of use after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, gaikokujin remained as the official government term for non-Japanese people. The modern word gaijin is held by some writers to be a simple contraction of gaikokujin.
Usage
Japanese speakers commonly refer to non-Japanese people 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
Japanese diaspora
The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as , are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants that reside in a foreign country...
.
Historically, some usage of the word "gaijin" referred respectfully to the prestige and wealth of Caucasians or the power of western businesses. This interpretation of the term as positive or neutral in tone continues for some. However, though the term may be used without negative intent by many Japanese speakers, it is seen as derogatory by some and reflective of exclusionary attitudes.
"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)
The term is avoided by mainstream Japanese media whenever possible.
Now that gaijin has become somewhat politically incorrect, it is common to refer to non-Japanese as gaikokujin. However if the honorific san is attached to the word Gaijin as Gaijin-san, some see it as a friendly expression.
Gaijin also appears frequently in Western literature and pop culture. It forms the title of such novels as Marc Olden's Gaijin (New York: Arbor House, 1986), James Melville's Go gently, gaijin (New York : St. Martin's Press, 1986), James Kirkup's Gaijin on the Ginza (London: Chester Springs, 1991) and James Clavell's Gai-Jin (New York: Delacorte Press, 1993)
Gai-Jin (novel)
Gai-Jin is a 1993 novel by James Clavell, chronologically the third book in his Asian Saga, although it was the last to be published. Taking place about 20 years after the events of Tai-Pan, it chronicles the adventures of Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, in Japan...
, as well as a song by Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
. It is the title of feature films such as Tizuka Yamazaki's Gaijin - Os Caminhos da Liberdade (1980) and Gaijin - Ama-me Como Sou (2005), as well as animation shorts such as Fumi Inoue's Gaijin (2003). It is a recurring word in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a 2006 street racing action film directed by Justin Lin. It is the third installment in the The Fast and the Furious film series and currently the sixth in terms of series chronology...
(2006), where it is used to refer to both the main character, an American, and his love interest. The author Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich is an American author from Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated magna-cum-laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard University in 1991. Some of his books have been written under the pseudonym Holden Scott. Mezrich attended Princeton Day School, in Princeton, New Jersey...
uses the word "gaijin" frequently in his book, Ugly Americans. This is a term used to describe the society of Americans making their living from the Japanese stock market.
Flyjin
Foreigners and the English-language media in Japan coined the term "flyjin" (or fly-jin), a play on the word gaijin, as a label for the non-Japanese who fled Japan in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
. Approximately 531,000 non-Japanese in Japan departed the country after the disaster.
See also
- Japanese diasporaJapanese diasporaThe Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as , are Japanese emigrants from Japan and their descendants that reside in a foreign country...
- EthnocentrismEthnocentrismEthnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
- AusländerAusländer- People with surname Auslander or Ausländer :* Joseph Auslander, Poet* Leora Auslander* Louis Auslander, mathematician* Maurice Auslander, mathematician, who introduced:** Auslander algebra** Auslander–Buchsbaum formula** Auslander–Buchsbaum theorem...
- PakehaPakehaPākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
- HaoleHaoleHaole , in the Hawaiian language, is generally used to refer to an individual that fits one of the following: "White person, American, Englishman, Caucasian; American, English; formerly, any foreigner; foreign, introduced, of foreign origin, as plants, pigs, chickens"...
- Japanese abbreviated and contracted wordsJapanese abbreviated and contracted wordsAbbreviated and contracted words are a common feature of Japanese. Long words are often contracted into shorter forms, which then become the predominant forms. For example, the University of Tokyo, in Japanese Tōkyō Daigaku becomes , Tōdai, and "remote control", rimōto kontorōrā , becomes rimokon....
- SangokujinSangokujinis a Japanese term referring to ex-colonial nationals of Taiwan, Korea and China in the aftermath of World War II. The original term, which literally means "three country person", is said to have been coined to establish a separate political, social and legal status from Japanese.- Concept :In the...
- Tension between social groups in sentō bathhouses
- Zainichi KoreanZainichi KoreanKoreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the second largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan...
- Japanese Brazilian
- O-yatoi gaikokujinO-yatoi gaikokujinThe Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as oyatoi gaikokujin , were those foreign advisors hired by the Japanese government for their specialized knowledge to assist in the modernization of Japan at the end of the Bakufu and during the Meiji era. The term is sometimes...
- Kyōgaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura File - Gaijin Hanzai Hakusho 2007Kyogaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura File - Gaijin Hanzai Hakusho 2007meaning Shocking Secret Foreigner Crime File - Foreigner Crime White Paper 2007, was a mook published in Japanese on January 31, 2007 by Eichi Publishing Inc.ja It was distributed in convenience stores and online at Rakuten Books and Amazon.com...
- Charisma ManCharisma ManCharisma Man is a fictional character in a comic strip of the same name. "Charisma Man" first appeared in the February 1998 issue of The Alien , a monthly magazine for expatriates in Japan....
- Hiragana TimesHiragana TimesHiragana Times is a magazine published in Japan, written for foreigners residing in Japan. The Hiragana Times is unique in that all the articles are written in both English and Japanese, with no bias between the languages....