From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: What do most of Japanese think of Korean (Re: An open letter..)
Date: 23 Aug 92 12:13:53 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

wohfuchi@splash.Princeton.EDU (Wataru Ohfuchi) writes:

>In article <2444@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:

>[stuff deleted]

>>Perhaps what you are missing is that Japanese only like Japanese!

>  Well, sounds too extreme and simplistic.

Of course it is :-)

>[stuff deleted]

>>Let me explain: According to what I understand, there are no "human
>>beings in Japan". By that, I mean that in the prevailing rehtoric,
>>there are only "Japanese" and "Gaijins". When I've asked people I
>>know if there is some term in Japanese that means "human being"
>>(without any particular cultural/poltical position) they said yes,
>>but they don't use it. 

>  "Ningen" and "Jinrui" are used very often. They mean any human beings
>on the Earth. They sound a little formal, though. OK, even a weirdest
>Japanese never claims foreign coutries are outside of the planet. ;-)

No, but I think it's common knowledge that when Japanese are outside
of Japan they still speak of how many foreigners there are. Only a
few seem to realize that *they* are the foreigner in such
situations. But this isn't limited to Japanese, I think it applies
to many people who are stuck with the "where I live is home and
everyplace else is strange" kind of thinking. 

>>So the Japanese "map of the world" can be drawn with Japan as a
>>circle in the middle called "Japan", in which live "Japanese". The
>>rest of the world is in the space outside, and is called "Foreign
>>Countries" in which live "Gaijin". Within the general class of
>>"Gaijins" there are basically two kinds, WASP-like Gaijins (meaning
>>White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or something similar) and the rest. 

>  Well, sounds too extreme and simplistic again. WASP-like (hakujin=white)
>and non-WASP gaikokujin story, however, is more or less true. (see Mr.
>Dave McLane's original article)

Yes, it is kind of extreme and simplistic but I think it adequately
characterizes the situation. Well, maybe I should say 'characterized'
as I believe it's changing. 

Two years ago I took a small survey with the help of native speaker
of Japanese as to what terms were used in the Japanese version of
stories that appeared in the English versions of the Asahi and Daily
Yomiuri. In general, it 'gaijin' appeared in Engish as 'foreigner'. 

But recently I've noticed a change. For example, in today's Daily
Yomiuri (page 2, where the local news is), I see "persons who
appeared to be foreign" and "two persons ... believed to be foreign"
(about a robbery). And "one Japanese and two Taiwanese" (about a
drug arrest). Then "two Brazilian men" were involved in a accident
and "two Iranian men" were arrested. 

I don't know what the Japanese versions of these articles said, but
notice that 'foregn' is being used as an adjective, not a noun. The
tone is very different than when used as an noun.

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:6678 rec.travel:11780