[Columbine]

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Hi, Columbine.
Thank you.
大丈夫です、ありがとう!

May I use your comments in my blog?

Of course you may!

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

私としては、そういうコメントは正しいと思います。
外国人の方に会ったことがない日本人はたくさんいます 。そういう人たち初めて外国の方にお会いしたら、もの すごく驚いて過剰反応するでしょう。
And I think you would say you don’t understand why those Japanese people are surprised meeting foreigners.

That's probably true. But it's like walking on tatami in shoes. From a very small child, we're told to never point out strangers who are different or talk about someone being different, just like Japanese children are told not to walk on tatami in shoes. So when people over-react to our foreignness, sometimes in what we perceive as a negative way, it's very uncomfortable; like watching some man with shoes on stomping around a tatami room.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

I know that “Jap” is a derogatory term, but how about “Japanese”?
If I call you English, is that a discrimination?

I think it's the shortness of the word. "Japanese" and "English" are like titles, so they're ok, but shortening it, or changing the word usually makes it insulting. Because 'gaijin' is a short version, it fits the conventions of making an insult in English, so i guess people assume it's shortened for the same reason in japanese, lack of respect, rather than the real reason, it's just easier to say!

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

If there are many people from Western countries in Japan, those children wouldn’t say like that.
もし西洋の方が大勢日本にいたしたら、そういう子供た ちもそんなことは言わないと思いますよ。

Well, not quite like that, but it does happen, especially outside of tourist areas. My friends and I have been openly discussed by strangers on the train. She's been followed by kids shouting "Harro! Hey American! Harro gaijin!". Sometimes even high-school kids do nudge each other and point and openly say things like, 'hey look, a gaijin' to each other.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Columbine, sorry; I don’t see what this sentence means.
Who is デビト?

Have you heard of Debito? He's the human rights activist in Hokkaido. He protests for the rights of foreigners in Japan and pointing out the problems for foreigners living in Japan, but is often criticized for being too aggressive. He and other writers like him, over a long period of time, have cited 'gaijin' as an offensive term. Because people sometimes only ever hear about the word in this context, the idea has spread that it's a bad word.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

In the city in Japan, I think such things would not happen, while in rural places, it’s likely.

True, but then I have friends living in quite large cities, where it just happens that there aren't a lot of foreigners, so it still happens.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

Yes, the Japanese people like to lumps people all together.
We often lump ourselves all together. It may be difficult to understand why you don’t like to be lumped together to most Japanese people.

Because lumping people from Tokyo and people from Sapporo together as 'Japanese' is easy, because Tokyo and Sapporo are still quite similar. But taking people from London and people from Lagos, people from Utah or people from Dubai, and lumping them together as 'gaijin' is more problematic as we're all very, very different. You could lump me and the Utah man together as 'western', or myself and the Londoner as 'british'. But we're too different culturally to all group together.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

I agree with you!
I’m sure that there are more Japanese criminals than foreign criminals, but the Japanese people like to say so.

And I'm sure it's true that there are many foreign drug dealers in Japan too, but it's really awkward if I get lumped in under the 'gaijin' title with those sorts of people. For Japanese people too, because then they have to say something odd like "no, not these gaijin, those other sort of gaijin," when they've already said, we're all 'gaijin'.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

I must say here there are differences.
In Japan, if one of my friends come to with someone, and said “this is my friend, and she is gaijin”, other friends and I would be really interested in the person, and try to be friends with the person.

I think you misunderstood me. I don't mind being introduced as gaijin so much, it's when there's all this talk about gaijin causing problems in Japan and being criminals, and then there's me, with my gaijin label, being the only gaijin at the table. It's the lumping problem again. If an X-country man shoots a Japanese person, everyone will talks about how awful 'gaijin' are. but it's not a 'gaijin' issue, it's a 'X-country' issue.

Originally Posted by YuriTokoro

OK, this is understandable.
It must be frustrating.
I am really sorry to hear that.

Actually I'm pretty lucky. England has a very good reputation in Japan, and compared to some people I know, I don't stand out in a crowd all that much.