gaijin 外人

In Japanese, gaijin 外人 means "foreigner." Literally "outsider." It's synonymous with gaikokujin 外国人, except that gaijin is considered to be offensive while gaikokujin is not.

• Pronunciation
• Meaning
  • kanji
  • Offensiveness

Pronunciation

For the record, how gaijin is pronounced:

• Guy Djinn.
• Guy Engine (without the "en")
• Guy Gym (not exactly, but close enough)

How gaijin is NOT pronounced:

• Gay Jim
• Giant Gem
• Gee Dim

See romaji for why it's spelled gaijin.

Meaning

Both gaijin and gaikokujin refer to someone who isn't Japanese. They're generally interchangeable, except that the former is considered offensive by some and may be avoided in TV programs, etc.

Manga: Giant Killing

• Context: a kid sees a foreigner.
• suimaseen...
  すいませーん
  (a contraction of...)
  • sumimasen
    すみません
    Excuse me.
    Sorry.
• owa!
  おわ！
  Whoa!
• gaikokujin!
  外国人！
  A foreigner!
• haha' ok ok
  ハハッＯＫ　ＯＫ
  Hahah. Ok. Ok.

kanji

The kanji of gaijin and gaikokujin mean:

• soto
  外
  Outside.
• kuni
  国
  Country.
• hito
  人
  Person.

The word gaikokujin means literally "outside-country-person," while gaijin just "outside-person," so one literally means "a person from another country," while the other literally means an "outsider."

Historically, gaijin could mean just "outsider," yoso-mono よそ者, but that was centuries ago, and it was pronounced guwaijin グワイジン at the time instead. Normally, gaijin means "foreigner."^{[外国人 - dic.nicovideo.jp, accessed 2020-06-25]}

• soto no hito
  外の人
  Someone from outside.

Note that if you spell the word with kanji backwards, you get a different word:

• jingai
  人外
  Outside person. Non-human. (e.g. monster girls.)

Offensiveness

The reason why gaijin is considered offensive is because it has racist connotations. The word gaijin isn't simply a way to differentiate:

• nihonjin
  日本人
  Japanese person.

From:

• hi-nihonjin
  非日本人
  Non-Japanese person.

Instead, it typically refers from someone who isn't Asian.^{[外人 - kotobank.jp, accessed 2020-06-25]}

Someone who is neither Japanese, nor:

• chuugokujin
  中国人
  Chinese person.
• kankokujin
  韓国人
  South Korean person.
• chousenjin
  朝鮮人
  North Korean person.
• taiwanjin
  台湾人
  Taiwanese person.

In other words, someone from west, a "western."

Given this, it's more politically correct to say gaikokujin instead.

Note, however, that some foreigners in Japan don't care which word is used, and neither do Japanese natives. For many people, gaijin is an abbreviation of gaikokujin and nothing more.

Then again, "jap" is an offensive abbreviation of "Japanese" in America.

Sometimes, gaijin is chosen due to its offensiveness.

• baka gaijin
  馬鹿外人
  "Stupid foreigner."
  • Self-deprecating phrase used sarcastically by weebs and foreigners learning Japanese.

Nevertheless, the point is that some people consider gaijin offensive and gaikokujin not.

"You got your salaryman in there, the delinquent school girl and her sugar daddy, Chinese people, and even those Nigerian touts. What's with all the fucking gaijin (foreigners) in the area anyway? It used to be just Japanese, Koreans and Chinese."

"M: Don't say gaijin. Say Gaikokujin. It's more polite. Jake's a gaijin."

"S: Yeah, I forget sometimes. What's with all the fucking gaikokujin in Kabukicho anyway?"

— The actual Yakuza, reviewing a game about the Yakuza, accessed 2020-06-25.

By the way, haafu ハーフ, "half," is a Japanese term to refer to someone who's half-Japanese, that is, who only has one Japanese parent.