The Japanese word gaijin means “foreigner” and is made up of two characters: gai (outside) and jin (person). The term can be found in ancient Japanese literature and was originally used to refer to outsiders, potential enemies and strangers. In modern Japan, the term has come to mean a person from overseas, although it is a somewhat rough and, at times, controversial expression. The politically correct way to refer to a foreigner in Japanese is by using the word gaikokujin, since by inserting the word country (koku) in the middle, the nuance of “outsider” is eliminated. The debate around the use of gaijin exists because the word itself is not explicitly derogatory, however the nuance suggests a sense of exclusivity and therefore perhaps superiority.
The word gaijin first appeared in the English language in Ian Fleming’s 1965 Bond novel, You Only Live Twice when Fleming wrote “Bond would be explained away to the elders as a famous gaijin anthropologist”. There were no racist overtones here, but an article from the Sunday Times in 1992 illustrates how the term in recent decades has often been used in contexts which fuel negativity: “Stories of gaijin crime abound in the headlines, as Korean thieves and Nigerian credit card fraudsters head to this previously crime-free country”. News stories that have referred to gaijin as the perpetrators of crime and cause of Japan’s rising crime rate have propelled the perception that gaijin is synonymous with criminality or social disorder and so the word has taken on derogatory overtones.
Mainstream TV in Japan avoids the term gaijin in reference to foreigners, although many Japanese people still use it in daily conversation without intending to convey any racist overtone. Just in case, however, they may add the honorific suffix -san, so the word becomes gaijin-san or, if translated literally, Mr Foreigner /Mrs Foreigner.
