I believe you know a Japanese term
gaijin and that it means "foreigner, outsider."
Yes, it means "foreigners." But literally, it means "outsider."
Also, we have another word that means the same,
gaikokujin. This literally only means "people of outside countries."
I find it interesting and unique about Japanese culture how we use that word to refer to foreigners. You know in Japan, we have, so to speak "pure" Japanese. By which, I mean full Japanese-blood people. Of course, over the history of Japan, there must have been many people coming from outside Japan, especially from nearby Asian regions such as China, Russia, and Korean peninsula, and as a result of that, many Japanese should have non-pure Japanese blood.
But what I mean is that we don't have many immigrants (we do, but they are only immigrants, not citizens, though maybe you think of "immigrants" as people who/whose family originally came from foreign countries but technically are citizens of your country), or Japan is not a nation that was made by immigrants ("immigrants" here I mean people from a foreign "country" to a foreign "country").
The United States, for example, is a country that was made by immigrants originally from the England. However, on the North America continent where it's the US today were native tribes. So, today, there's no such an idea as "pure" American, or "American" only refers to those who have a citizenship of the US, not blood. So, even if a Japanese couple immigrate to the US, they are immigrants (what if they get citizenship, are they still called immigrants?) when they have children, those children are not immigrants, but citizens of the US. Those kids are children of immigrants, but they themselves are not immigrants. Well, that's my definition.
Back to the topic, it's clear when a foreigner, especially from the West, comes to Japan that he is not Japanese but a foreigner. So, when we say gaijin/gaikokujin, I think it means more of "non-Japanese."
One of factors as to why Japanese people use "foreigner" as such a wide meaning is, I think, because Japan was once isolated during the
sakoku era. That being simply said, Japanese people are not used to seeing, or what's even more is dealing with, non-Japanese people. Still, when we see foreigners on the streets, they may get attention, if not huge. We may likely at least think "Oh, a foreigner."
I personally don't like using "gaijin" because it sounds a bit too discriminative (separating) toward "foreigners." If I have to say when one is not Japanese, I'd use "gaikokujin" instead, or if I know where he's from, his nationality. Or, even more formally, "外国の人/方" (gaikoku no hito/kata). It means "foreign people." And if you use 方 (read かた), it is even politer because 方 is a polite way to refer to people. (However, when you say 外国の人/方, it can mean "people abroad," like "people in other countries.")
A funny example is, I heard several times when some Japanese people used "foreigner (as in the English term)" and gaijin/gaikokujin (as in the Japanese term) improperly, that they referred the local people by "foreigners" when they went abroad. They said like, "There were a lot of foreigners, so I was so excited that I could try my English with them!"
OH NO. YOU were the foreigner.
Say, if a Japanese sees an American in Japan, he's is (most likely) a foreigner. BUT, if you see Americans in the US, they are not foreigners, but this Japanese is a foreigner.
Yeah.
Kouhei
