Thus, he is a racist.

It’s not rooted in nationalism or whatever. You miss various important facts and points. Takigawa, the former newscaster of “News JAPAN” which is aired in midnight and considered serious one, was already famous and having many fans. Hasegawa had degraded her as a result, by underestimating her skill as a newscaster, to flatter or praise the successor to Takigawa’s post, his female collegue Akimoto, in his speech to introduce Akimoto.

Hasegawa’s inadequate and erroneous usage of the word “gaijin” toward Takigawa was combined with the above situation. Also note that it can not be easily believed that Hasegawa could not actually remember Takigawa’s name. Thus, it is also suspected that Hasegawa had used “gaijin” to indicate that Takigawa wasn’t a person worth remembering, so he might have intended to call her just by a her obvious characteristic. He would have used “that woman” if he were more careful, but in this case he might have been accused of sexist or misogynist instead of xenophobe by raged Takigawa’s fans. He’d better use “person of 45 degree angle”.

I am now apartment hunting and going to all these “fudosanya” and I do encounter some problems because I am not Japanese but I speak fluent Japanese. 日本語は普通に話せるが、ちょっと大変です。 Some places are kind of reluctant to rent out to non japanese but those are the places I ignore, thats all I can do. Thankfully it seems as if the majority are against discrimination and do not discriminate towards me. Not sure about others but. We live in Obama days, racial discrimination should be something of the past. 人種差別は時代遅れ。

The same way, there are cultural differences between Kansai and Kanto people in Japan.

The unpleasant suspicion is that — to generalise grossly — Japanese people regard themselves as different to and better than foreigners, in a kind of race-nationalistic way. And this was the basis of the insulting comment about Miss Takigawa.

Obviously, racist and nationalist feelings are present in all countries. Sadly, humans are prone to such feelings due to our psychology.

Perhaps if I hit a dry spell and have nothing else to do when a mygengo job comes up I’ll tackle it. Then again, maybe that’s the way they mean for their system to work.

But of course I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. I think gaijin is a word that has wide connotations (and continually being disused since some of the connotations are negative). Some people simply use gaijin because he/she is lazy to say gaikokujin (kind of like whites vs. Caucasians or nihonjin vs. nihon no kata), or the word (gaikokujin) is too formal for the context. I think in this TakiKuri case, it is racist to call her (a Japanese nonetheless) a gaijin as the main factor for her quitting — a complete BS statement.

Not to defend the dude announcer (who is kind of a prick), but I think it is also true that many Japanese feel “different” from other cultures. Just talk to a Japanese working overseas and you could easily have a heated topic. One can write a whole book on this, but generally speaking, the bigger the cultural and language difference, the tendency to categorize as the “other” (immigrants = Mexicans anyone?). Maybe it’s true that the Japanese are more segregating in their language, but not necessary racist in an American context (if you get my gist).

Also, one person said gaijin was used more for non-Asians. I think this is true partly for cultural difference stuff that I mentioned but also because of the strong presence (and derivative political problems) of the Zainichi Koreans and illegal Chinese. You’re sort of forced to specify the Asian descent when speaking of Asian foreigners. My 2 cents.

Disclaimer: I’m American and Japanese.

The insult comes from the fact that it was inferred that Miss Takigawa was not good at her job because she is a gaijin.

Nothing was said about her professional skills or those of the new reporter who it is said will improve the quality of reporting.

The argument was based on Takigawa being “not properly Japanese”. This clearly classes gaijin as inferior which is a blatantly racist attitude.

The 2Chan comments recognise this insult.

If we are going to dive into the discussion of his “本音”(honne) issue, I think, then we should consider about seriousness of his opinion, attitude, and interest toward Takigawa. We can not infer something solely from an ad hoc disposable statement. In my opinion, the word or the concept of “本音”usually refer to the opinion or intention, usually hidden within one’s mind, regarding things which is sometimes persistent and/or usually taken seriously. We don’t have any “本音”on uninterested issue usually. Hence, if Hasegawa actually had not cared much about Takigawa, his statement should not be considered as “本音”about, at least, Takigawa. However, it is still possible that his frank opinion, “本音”, about “foreigner-looking” people was revealed, but, in my opinion, it is rather his “本性” (real nature/true character) which had been revealed in this incident. To mention more clearly, Hasegawa might be basically ignorant, insensitive, or uninterested to racial issue, issue of the minority peoples, and such.

My first notable encounter with “Jap” was when I started studying the language at high school and referred to it as “Jap” for short. It was *years* later that I first heard it was considered offensive by some….

Yes, I understand that word meanings change over time and their degree of offensiveness too. But it somewhat remind me of my first real encounter with “Jap”. It didn’t take so much time to let me understand that it is actually context dependent whether it is accompanied by contempt or not. However, I can’t still measure the reasonably precise amount of an impact on other’s feeling and of the degree of offensiveness, for those words like, “moron”, “idiot”, and “retarded” especially.

Thanks for comments.

Suppose that a German was just introduced to his neighbors, ordinary Japanese people, in Japan. If his nationality is a very strong characteristic to his neighbors, then they might use his nationality to refer to him, like, “Ah, I can’t remember his name,…that Doitsu-jin…”, where Doitsu (Deutch) means Germany and hence Doitsu-jin means German person. After he is enough familiarized with them, his neighbors may start to call him with his name. However, he might be nicknamed as “Doitsu-san”, if being a German is so appealing to his neighbors.

No, we can wonder why we chose this word, and what this word means to him. It is true that he is not representative of all Japan, but then it is equally false to claim his conception of the word is necessariy unique. Otherwise there would be little point in saying it. I’m not interested in this one comment per se, but in how the Japanese conceptualize the Other, as represented by the word “gaijin.”

This is one man. He does not speak for the entire country. Sure, he’s a dumb-ass, but nothing else can be inferred from his comment but that he’s a dumb-ass.

If Hasegawa’s comment had not been scripted, it was just his personal comment. Hence, producer, editor, and other Fuji TV cable program stuffs were not responsible for broadcasting his “gaijin” comment. Blaming Fuji TV on this issue is not really appropriate. Also, this personal incident should not be generalized to the Japanese social problem easily.

The situation was not good for Hasegawa. It is obvious if all the above three facts are taken into account. These facts suggest that Hasegawa could not be discreet and well-prepared but rather he must have lowered his moral and ethical standard since the program was intended to be just a ridiculous show of indiscreet chat. He would have not made such a comment for introducing Akimoto if he were in more serious program or even in usual news show in lazy afternoon. He was just not quick-witted so much.

I mentioned on that to prevent people jumping to conclusions suggesting immaturity of the Japanese society or whatever else too easily. Statements of drunken persons and people being high at the party can not be a good measure of maturity of the society.

I believe if someone calls you a gaijin, it means that you are “in pending.”

That means you are suspect as someone outside of our social norms, and we don’t really know if your good or bad, what kind of person you are, so we don’t really know how to treat you.

Some react by just denying your humanity, some just shun you off, while others look at you with curiosity and awe, and there are even others that excuse you from all the protocols and etiquette that is usually required to live as an adult in Japan.

I’ve been called a gaijin from my Japanese peers many times, because I grew up in the US and did some things differently than other Japanese.

Once your nationality is known, some might care enough to use it to refer to you. But as it’s been mentioned here in other comment threads before, the proportion of foreigners present in the country is still small enough that the catch-all term of “foreigner” sufficies in most cases, and many people may go on living without encountering a situation when correct identification of someone’s nationality is really that important.

So you still might be referred to as a “gaijin” out of habit of the speaker without any intentional disrespect.

Germans call foreigners their country of origin. Americans, American. French, French. British, British…

I’m American. I’ve never been to Japan. Would I be referred to as American there or instead by the term “gaijin”?

Trying to figure out why the broad term and not the specific. Perhaps someone on here living in Japan or a Japanese national could answer this…

I think this has already been covered somewhat here but the problem I have is that in Japan you are either Japanese or not Japanese. People rarely refer to you bt your nationality or race or some other characteristic. Growing up in a multicultural society I always assumed someone was American unless they told me otherwise or I had some way to know. In Japan if you do not look Japanese you are simply called not Japanese and many times this can feel negative. I usually refer to people by their nationality or race. I think it just offers a bit more respect and feels more like you view this person as an equal. If I went around calling people not Americans it would feel like I were talking down on them as if Americans were better than other people. Maybe its just the “not” part that bugs me and feels alienating.

So Japan is a different culture and people speak in a different fashion. I’m willing to accept it when someone tells me they don’t intend the term to be racist, but the initial gut reaction I get is that it is simply from my own culture. I’m beyond letting it bother me, but if anyone asks I always offer my side of it. Most people are pretty understanding (unlike some of the posters here).

In the original Yahoo! Japan News article, there are several “facts” which might have not yet been mentioned here:

1. The program was aired live.
2. The content of this program was just a ridiculous entertainment by “announcers” from Fuji-TV, and was supposed to be very exciting by participants’ chats, talks full of digression, and honest, outspoken, and frank talks.
3. Hasegawa was on the way to introduce various his female colleagues.

I am often disgusted by English speaking people who use words like “moron”, “idiot”, and “retarded” casually as a pejorative term. They use these words, which had once been employed as medical terms for categorizing mental retardation by psychologists, to describe a person, who does foolish things or looks foolish, with disgust or contempt. I don’t know the degree of offensiveness in the present-day usage of these words at all. However, I think, corresponding words could not have survived “the word hunting”, at least as (non-technical) daily-use terms, in Japan. They can only live in a place like 2-channel nowadays.

A lot of people say that the Japanese are xenophobic, but I don’t think so. I think the Japanese are selective in what they want for their society (not nation). Exclusion and elimination has not always been the case, actually it’s the oppostie. Sometimes Japanese are very inclusive aren’t they. Actually I’m Japanese so I should say “we”.
And no Japanese uses the word gaikoku tsuuka, or gaikokusha when they can just abbreviate.

I once found someone arguing that “Gaijin” is an offensive word since it is not considered just as a short for “Gaikoku-jin”, a literal translation of “foreigner” or “person of foreign country”. The basis of his argument was concerned with the common usage of “Gai”, e.g., “Gai-sha” and “Gai-ka”. He argued that “Gai” is commonly used as a prefix for representing “outside”, and then he assumed a tendency of Japanese people that they mark everything from outside of Japan with a prefix “Gai” so that they can easily distinguish foreign things from Japanese things. Then, he finally concluded that “Gaijin” is not actually a short for “Gaikoku-jin” but rather is a word of xenophobia originally invented by the xenophobic Japanese people who are eager to keep foreign things distinguishable in preparation for ready exclusion and elimination. He even didn’t know the existense of the word like “Gaikoku-tsuuka” and “Gaikoku-sha”, meaning “foreign currency” and “foreign car” in English.

As a final note, I think, it is “Gaikoku no kata” which sounds more politely as a word denoting “a foreigner”.

大辞林
［1］ 　　　外国人。

・ ―選手

・ ―墓地
［2］ 内輪でない人。他人。外部の人。

・ ―もなき所に兵具をととのへ〔出典： 平家 1〕
大辞泉
１ 外国人。特に、欧米人をいう。

２ 仲間以外の人。他人。

・ 「―もなき所に兵具(ひゃうぐ)をととのへ」〈平家・一〉

I’ve never heard of Japanese call another Japanese person gaijin in a second sense.

And here are the definition of gaikokujin

大辞林
がいこくじん［ぐわい―］ 4 【外国人】
「がいこくじん」を大辞泉でも検索する

［1］ 他の国家の人民。外人。異国人。
⇔内国人
［2］ 日本の国籍をもたない者。法律上の地位は原則として日本人と同一であるが、参政権・工業所有権・出入国など、公法上・私法上の権利を制限されている
大辞泉　
がいこく‐じん〔グワイコク‐〕【外国人】
「がいこくじん」を大辞林でも検索する

その国の国籍を持たない人。外人。法律用語としては、外国の国籍を持つ者と無国籍の者をいう。

outside a person のご説明ありがとうございます。

The insult comes from the fact that it was inferred that Miss Takigawa was not good at her job because she is a gaijin.

Nothing was said about her professional skills or those of the new reporter who it is said will improve the quality of reporting.

The argument was based on Takigawa being “not properly Japanese”. This clearly classes gaijin as inferior which is a blatantly racist attitude.

The 2Chan comments recognise this insult.

If he called a foreigner ‘gaijin’ then people wouldn’t be offended. Jun Matsumoto once called a foreign woman ‘gaijin’ on the telly. They showed up to her house and gave her a puppy yet people weren’t offended, it didn’t make the news and you didn’t argue about it.

Yes, but my point is that it is still defined by this concept of “outside.”

Incidentally, 人の外 would be “outside A person”; sans the “a” the word “outside” becomes an adjective describing the person.
人外vs外人….

I am only offended that they called her gaijin bc I thought she was hot. There should be room in the Big Book of Japanese Smiles for someone who looks sort of white.

Clearly the person who said that was trying to be mean and hurtful. My completely groundless theory is she rejected his sexual advances.

I’ll miss seeing her on TV. If they actually let her contract expire because of her exotic appearance (she could have been the target of complaints) then that would be really sad.

“A dog fails the obvious “人” part. Nor is a dog a “someone”. ”
Ops, Sorry I was mistaken. I (mistakenly) thought someone even interpreted outside person as 人の外、人以外.

I was once giving direction to someone in San Francisco. I said, “go straight at the light”

Man, everyone freaked out! “You can’t say that! You have to say ‘GO FORWARD!!!!’” Apparently, I was making negative comments about people’s sexual orientation.

She was obviously chuckling because she understood how offensive his comment was. You could even say she was laughing because she knew he would get in trouble.

They did originally, IIRC. Way back when. The Heike Monogatari even uses it in a negative way to refer to “enemies”.* It all depends on what the definition of “our people” is. Now that “our people” is seen as “citizens of a nation-state,” the word “gaijin” naturally refers to non-Japanese.

“Does it mean you can call a dog gaijin? Nonsense.”

Ponta, this is not your usual standard. A dog fails the obvious “人” part. Nor is a dog a “someone”.

*That’s in the 広辞苑. Which gives three defs:
1. Outsider.
2. Enemy
3. Short form of “foreigner.”
In that order, I note.