Mustn't use Gajin?
How we say foreigners in Japanese is Gaikokuzin, which stands for 外国( foreign country) and 人(people). But, some people say Gaijin instead of Gaijin. Gaijin means people who c<s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">a</s>ome from outside. Here, it is controversial whether this Gaijin indicates racism against foreign people. Today I would like to share <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">show</s> my thoughts on that. I do not think that <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">this </s>Gaijin is <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">not </s>offensive to foreigners.
First off, Gaijin means 'foreigners'<s> </s><s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">literary </s>literally/in a literal sense. I think that there are not huge differences between Gaikokuzin and Gaijin. Personally, I might be cool with it if I was (*hypothetical setting so you could say 'If I were') not Japanese and some people said Gaijin to me.
Second, Gaijin was not created to discriminate against foreign people. There are a lot of words that offend some communities<s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">y</s> such as<s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);"> like</s> Jap and Chink. Of course Japanese language have these words that abhor specific communities. We must not use these offensive words <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">forever</s> because these words were created to insult some communities. But, I can not count Gaijin as these insulting words because Gaijin is not used to hate somebody. Of course, even when we <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">do not </s>say Gaijin with no<s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);"> in any</s> bad intention <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">intension</s>, listeners can still feel bad. <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">s</s>So we have to be careful when <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">with</s> saying it, and we need to feel the person out whether they are alright with it or not.
Lastly, thinking about if some words have offensive meanings or not is progressive to accept immigrants in Japan. Similarly, Hadairo which means skin color in Japanese, which is <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">are</s><s> </s>not used anymore in Japan because we can not determine people's skin color by only<s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);"> one </s>words. Japan which is homogenous and xenophobic, is slowly changing for its future.
If you know about saying 'gaijin', do you think it is racial discrimination or not? <s style="color: rgb(230, 0, 0);">p</s>Please let me know.