Wairen 外人 still means outsiders, often specifically used as “not a part of the clan” in Chinese, both in the past and now as well. The most notorious usage would be referring to one’s own daughters in law or even own daughters as Wairen, simply because they are either married into the family or assumed to eventually marry out of the family. Although nowadays it is more common to hear people say things like “He is not a wairen”, “Don’t consider yourself a wairen” and other more endearing usages.
Some historical usages:
Xünzi (316BCE to 237BCE)
曾子曰：無內人之疏，而外人之親
Here Xünzi is quoting another scholar named Zengzi, who was a student of Confucius. Zheng said “You should not distance your own family (clan) and fraternize with outsiders instead.” Wairen here used to mean not one of the clan, a.k.a. outsider.
Tale of the Peach Blossom Spring - Tao Yuanming (365CE to 427CE)
其中往來種作，男女衣著，悉如外人。
Here, wairen is used to mean outsider. The protagonist discovers an isolated village hidden inside a tunnel behind a spring, and wairen is used to mean people not from this village.
Foreigners applying for Japanese credit and phone lines are more of a yes or no decision making
If the Japanese secret algorithm says your foreign ass is trustworthy, they will give you a credit card or phone. If that same algo doesn’t like you, Japanese banks and carriers will straight decline you with ZERO recourse. No complaining to the FCC or NCC there like Taiwan. They just simply say computer says no, sorry and that’s it.
If you ask them why they say it’s proprietary information. They are smart enough to not use the word foreigner with you
Japan has the highest birth rate among its East Asian neighbours right now. Check your statistics as this image is badly out of date.
As of 2022’s numbers, Japan’s birth rate is around 1.3. Still not great, I grant you. But Taiwan’s is 1.11. Singapore’s is 1.02.
Perhaps you need to revise your hypothesis that birth rates are pressingly important when it comes to cultural attitudes and possible xenophobia. I don’t think anyone would accuse Singapore of being hostile to foreign residents, and thus ensuring its own demographic demise.
where? haha, they are just more honest in disliking foreigners, although now the more hardcore pro-democracy HKers like westerners more than mainlander, so things have changed a bit.
The difference is when Singapore’s demographics get bad, they have a basis and structure to allow in more immigrants as needed. Lately, Singapore has actually become more ethnocentric, making it hard for all but the top immigrants to come in. So their demographics are of their own making.
Whereas Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and others never really opened the doors up for foreigners en masse and seem satisfied with crashing their demographics, as is their right of course.
Article 14 of the Constitution of Japan states that all people (English version) or citizens (revised Japanese version) are equal under the law, and they cannot be discriminated against politically, economically, or socially on the basis of race, belief, sex, or social or other background .
However, Japan does not have civil rights legislation which prohibits or penalizes discriminatory activities committed by citizens, businesses, or non-governmental organizations.
I would argue that places like Korea are quite content to prop up their dwindling labour force (specifically in manufacturing and agriculture) through the ‘grey economy’ (I can’t comment on Japan as I have much less knowledge and experience). There is an awful lot of undocumented immigration in Korea’s countryside, factories, and building sites. This lets the right-wing nationalists keep playing their favourite tune about homogeneity and preserving Korean identity, whilst keeping certain sectors of the economy humming along. Plus, it means lots of workers don’t require pesky things like rights, union representation, or fair and equitable pay and working conditions … a win/win for the right, who are also largely the land-owning and business-owning class. You can see this same playbook even in ‘democrat’ Western economies, such as in California and its vast population of undocumented agricultural workers. Countries can be outwardly protectionist and exclusionary, and politicians can dogwhistle and be xenophobic, but they’re really quite amenable to letting in foreign workers via the back door.
I suppose my main point, really, was that falling birthrates are more often caused by endogenous factors, and these countries evidently think that it’s a problem they can solve natively, too. It is indeed ‘their right’, as you say. Lots of places welcome foreign workers as a generational stop-gap but without any pretence of letting them stay permanently. But it seems as though Japan comes in for special censure for this.
A comparable example elsewhere in the world is similarly homogeneous and historically remote polities in places like Scandinavia. Frankly, some of the attitudes of the Danes or Swedes to immigration would make a Japanese or Korean blush.
“A district court Monday ordered a private bathhouse on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido to pay a total of $25,000 to three foreign-born men who were refused entry on the basis of race.”
With Danes I can agree, although EU regulation shields a lot, but they make extremely difficult to actually settle down there.
Sweden a bit less so tbh, they have such a big immigrant population, but yeah, some hardcore Swedes are not that happy and there is a lot of racial tensions in the big cities.
There is definitely still discrimination towards Taiwanese aboriginals on behalf of the majority Han. Although historically racist terms like 番仔 and 山地人 you hear less often nowadays.
A recent reported on example was the host of Bailingguo news 凱莉 making a comment after winning an award. When someone said she was probably the darkest one up there, she replied by saying you still have Taiwan Indigenous TV.
I have been refused entry to hostess bars in Bangkok that catered to Japanese clientele.
I am not the only westerner that happened to. The norm over there.
There’s plenty of stereotypes, such as western men just walk outside their house and are already banging women. Westerners are more ‘open’ meaning the women are all slappers. And we all know how south east asian people get looked down on.
