Regarding the Sept. 23 Community page article "Readers get last word on 'gaijin' tag": It is way too extreme to compare the word "n--ger" to "gaijin." I get the point that Debito Arudou made in his Sept. 2 article about the debate over the use of "gaijin." But as a Japanese, I have to say that most Japanese people do not use the word in a negative way.
I do think that we have to realize that many foreigners do not like the word and prefer "gaikoku-jin." But when we say gaijin, we are simply referring to a "non-Japanese"; we don't mean to offend others. By contrast, "n--ger" is clearly used in different situations and is even a taboo word.
Arudou articulated the point that Japanese people must realize that many foreigners don't like the word gaijin. But I don't think Japanese people will ever get used to calling, say, Japanese American people "America-kei-Nihonjin." That's just because historically we haven't had many different ethnic groups in Japan and we simply are not used to seeing non-Asian Japanese in this country.
Please remember that the word gaijin usually does not mean something negative to Japanese people unless it is used in certain negative situations.
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