Would you buy a tshirt with the work Gaijin on it?

[JohnBraden]

I wouldn't get one either. I'd never get caught in one in Japan. I'd rather give them a better impression of myself.

In the states, it's just chicken scratch to most and then you'd have to explain what a gaijin is to those who ask what it means. (probably not too many though)

[Paddaman]

I don't know what chicken scratch is, but there's plenty of people who wear clothes that say things other people don't know. Like Superdry.

Also, I don't need to put kids through college, I'm still in education myself. This is just and experiment.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Paddaman

I don't know what chicken scratch is, but there's plenty of people who wear clothes that say things other people don't know. Like Superdry.

Also, I don't need to put kids through college, I'm still in education myself. This is just and experiment.

You are batting 0 for 3 on a board full of your potential target audience.

[evanny]

why would a gaijin want a shirt that says gaijin? firs of all everyone can usually see that you are one, and second - it's stupid.
i would go for this one.

[Paddaman]

Originally Posted by MMM

You are batting 0 for 3 on a board full of your potential target audience.

maybe, but its not going to stop me trying.

[Nyororin]

You know, I think that you`re assigning a lot more meaning to the word than is really there.

99.99% of people in Japan who would see it would read it as "foreigner" and nothing else. No "outsider", no cool stigma, etc. It would mean nothing other than "Not Japanese" when written on your shirt.

it is widely used about rebel artists etc. inside of japan. perhaps even for their equivalent of scene kids.

i've seen a whole documentary about gaijin, who are japanese.

Oh really? Because no one in Japan would ever understand it as meaning anything other than "foreigner". I have yet to see it used to mean anything other than that even once in 12 years of living in Japan.

The whole weird obsession with stuff like this among those outside Japan always strikes me as having handfuls of mysticism tossed in. It happens a lot with kanji as if they have some sort of magical power attached to them, as if certain words carry all sorts of powerful meanings, etc. It`s just a word.

[SHAD0W]

Originally Posted by Paddaman

All in all, I thought it was pretty cool and I thought a lot of Japanophiles would buy it on a tshirt, so I am in the process of getting them made.

Don't bother.

A) It's not funny...

B) Someone beat you to it.

[tokusatsufan]

No! It's so tactless! Like,I saw a t-shirt saying"I am not Japanese" in Akihabara and I don't see how they made the mental leap "Well,I'll make it easy for them. I'm all for intergration. I know! They can advertise the fact that they're different!"

I don't know. The Japanese can be rather non-racially aware at times.

[Lakaluva]

I would buy that shirt if it was in Lakers gold and purple. I think it would sell big.