[steven]

"To me, I see it sort of as the difference between "Asian" and, say, "Chinese". Someone "Chinese" is a citizen of China. But "Asian" doesn`t mean that the person is a citizen of an Asian country. It reflects racial background. "Gaijin" tends to mean "European" or "Western" in Japanese usage. I would be offended to be called "American" after I took Japanese citizenship, but being called "Gaijin" would be much less frustrating. "American" after the other person knows that I have Japanese citizenship would flat out make me mad. "Gaijin" on the other hand would be a starter point to bring up the issues of race and citizenship."

Once again, this is where language plays a huge role. Knowing how the word is actually used is more important to some half-assed internet translation or some "definition" in a dictionary.

I would almost go as far as to say the term has good connotations depending on the context. As a foreigner, many Japanese will look at you as a source of knowledge about something they may not know about.

All words are like that... to use an example from American Engilsh (don't know if other countries do this... but I assume they do too), the word "genious" is like that. You can say "Albert Einstein was a genious". Or you could make fun of your friend who forgot to put his gas cap back on at the gas station and say "nice one genious". That example has to do with sarcasm, but that's basically what I'm talking about. It's all about in what feeling something is said and if it is meant maliciously or not.

Incidentally, there is a phrase in Japanese that is a little bit similar: "tabi no hito". This one, however, is mostly used negatively... but it can also be used to indicate that the person isn't from around here (to maybe cue a little less use of a dialect) or it can be used to describe someone from another place who you can learn from. So I guess what I'm saying is that gaijn isn't really that bad of a word in most contexts... and what's more, the Japanese have a word that I feel is typically worse to describe themselves with! That's how knowing a little bit of the language can help you understand this stuff better. I came to Japan having the notion that the word "gaijin" was in the bad category. Now that I live here and speak the language, I don't feel that way any more.

I have to say this though. A lot of Japanese people think that "gaijin" is a bad word. They think that way, I think, because they think that we (as foreigners) think it's a bad word. (haha, gotta love that sentence). So sometimes if a Japanese person calls you a gaijin, you'll here another one kind of scold that person for it. It makes me want to do more research on when and how the word "gaijin" was considered "bad". As far as I'm concerned (to repeat myself again), it is a harmless word in most of it's usage.