Meaning

(from the perspective of a Japanese person) A non-Japanese person..

Definitions by Sense

1. (from the perspective of a Japanese person) A non-Japanese person.
2. (Hawaii) A white person.

Example Sentences

The peculiar position of his group, according to Mr. Okimoto, is shown by the Japanese habit of referring to such persons as either nisei or nikkeijin —of Japanese descent—instead of calling them gaijin, that is, foreigners, or identifying them by nationality.

For a while he began to speak Japanese, rather slangy, never having seemed to learn it — karoshi for death from overwork, yakitaori-ya for eatery, and gaijin for clumsy foreigner.

The sarariman had been Japanese, but the Ninsei crowd was a gaijin crowd.

And I did not intend to live my life as a gaijin—not merely, like the expatriate, someone by definition permanently out of place but someone unwanted as well.

[...] I was placed in the gaijins' dormitory area up on the third floor.

Oh's pitchers later acknowledged that they were instructed—under penalty of a fine—to throw no strikes to the gaijin.

Word Forms

• gaijin
• gaijins

Related Words

When Should You Use Gaijin?

Use gaijin when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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