It is with the greatest pleasure that I read Hidesato Sakakibara's Feb. 28 letter, "Term 'gaijin' has run its course." For as long as I have lived in Japan I've detested that little word, which really is as offensive as "Jap" and should be gotten rid of.
Yet another word that people here should stop using (in English) is "foreigner." "Foreign resident" or "foreign national" may be OK, but in more sophisticated parts of the world, "expatriate" is the term preferred to describe people living beyond the borders of their own country.
donald m. seekins
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