It’s like that pretty much everywhere, isn’t it. Just a matter of degree.
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America says hi!
You’re not wrong, but for all its faults, there are few places where it’s easier to be accepted as an outsider than America. You just have to pick the right spot and you might never get 100% there. But you can get pretty close.
Yeah, I am an immigrant to the US and feel 100% accepted. However I am a white Hispanic male with an advanced degree, so that may have a lot to do with the level of acceptance.
My mom is also an immigrant who came to the US in her 40s without a degree and made a life here. I haven’t asked her directly but I think she feels well accepted in the US as well.
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People say this, and they’re not wrong, but if you decide to live in a country like Japan and have an ounce of common sense, then you just accept that this will be the case from the outset, don’t try to become Japanese because you’re not and never will be, and find a way to live your best life anyway.
You may not be able to gain acceptance on equal footing in “society” as a gaijin, but that doesn’t mean a foreigner living in Japan can’t gain acceptance among friends, co-workers, acquaintances, etc.
It’s rare (which is why so many fail), but it is possible.
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You can definitely see a difference in perspective when it comes immigration by looking at language.
In the US one might be called a Cuban American. Essentially American with Cuban as a qualifier. In Germany one might be called “Deutschtürke” which means German Turk. So it’s the other way round: Essentially Turkish with German as a qualifier. It’s a term that’s regularly used even for second or third generation immigrants.
I think this difference reveals how immigrants are perceived differently in these two countries where in one someone will at least in theory be considered American and in the other someone will always remain somewhat foreign.
So which of these does gaijin map to?
I think gaijin is closer to Germany’s “German-[origin nationality]” terminology. My point is that the US generally does a better job at accepting immigrants as full citizens.
A white foreigner wanting to be accepted as “Chinese” because they’ve lived sufficiently long in China is absurd.
There’s no comparison between moving to the USA and settling here as an immigrant–regardless of your economic status–and an American/first world resident moving to a country where the mere fact that they moved there is an expression of privilege and their economic status.
My in-laws were born in the Hubei countryside a few years prior to the start of the Great Leap Forward. My father-in-law took the college entrance exam the first year it returned following the Cultural Revolution. My mother-in-law hid multiple pregnancies in order to merely pay fines for having multiple children. Hell, my wife’s grandmother who just died a few months ago had a slave when she was a child and had multiple family members who were killed by the state during the early days of the PRC–being descended from the landlord class was a big factor in my wife’s parents being set up. It doesn’t require a PhD in Asian Studies to be aware of the intergenerational trauma that’s accompanied China’s modernization.
I lived in China for six years and am waiting on documents that will hopefully allow me to return soon. I’m not going to pretend to know the circumstances of every American in China–and some, I assume, are good people–but complaining about not being looked upon as Chinese warrants a kick to the nuts more than sympathy.
Gaijin just means “not Japanese”. Cuban-American includes “American”. Deutschtürke includes “German”. Gaijin means there is no overlap between Japanese and foreigner.
That’s interesting. Even though it literally means “not Japanese”, I’ve only seen it used for white people.
Are black and white people both gaijin? What about Koreans and Chinese? Also gaijin?
@Ikioi ?
Gaijin actually means 外 Gai Outside and 人 Jin Person – Outside person → Outsider → Foreigner.
To the average Japanese, the word just has the same meaning as “foreigner.” Obviously not Japanese. In the same sense that a person in the US who is not a citizen is a foreigner.
And of course there are those within Japan who use the term in a more derogatory manner. Just as we have Karens in the US who will scream at random Asians–even those who are very much American–as foreigners who should get the hell out of their country.
There are additional words that mean “white gaijin” and “black gaijin”. As far as I know, any non-Japanese Asian is a gaijin.
Would a Korean living in Japan be referred to as a gaijin? Is that standard?
Edge case time: White kid adopted by Japanese parents at birth? Gaijin?
In all the Asian countries I’ve traveled the word for foreigner (laowai, barang, farang, bule) basically always implies a white foreigner, and then you can modify it from there.
Are their additional modifiers for Chinese gaijin?
Naomi Osaka? Gaijin or not gaijin?
Short answer: yes. In fact there is a huge population of multi-generation ethnic Koreans who are as socially and culturally Japanese as any native but yet do not have Japanese citizenship. There is a separate word for them (Zainichi).
If you search YouTube you can find tons of videos from and about both non-Japanese born and raised in Japan, as well as Hafu (half-Japanese), many who will relate stories about not having been fully accepted into society.
But technically at least, anyone who born and raised in Japan with Japanese citizenship is not a gaijin, and would not be thought of as one by most people, though there would certainly be many exceptions.
She’s an interesting and polarizing case. Born in Japan. Sports superstar, and Japanese are happy to appropriate anyone who represents their country well. But Osaka grew up outside the country, can barely speak the language, seems to identify more strongly with her black/Haitian side, and while she does have many fans here, many either accept her only begrudgingly as one of their own or reject her as Japanese. Less because of her race than because of her upbringing and lack of connection with Japan.
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Thanks. That probably saved me a half hour of googling.
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Curious about this - what does not being fully accepted into society mean for these folks? Like, they are looked down on? Mocked? Very interesting - thanks for sharing.