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From Gaijin to Naijin: Becoming an Insider in Japan
Japan is a country well known for its strong homogeneity, purity of culture and traditions, and robust group identity. For no matter how long one might have lived in Japan, one would still likely be seen as a gaijin 外人- literally translated as outsider 外 person 人. Despite an increase in mixed-race population, half-Japanese (hafu) born and raised in Japan are still not considered as fully Japanese.
My move to this country was the beginning of my transformation from a gaijin to a camouflaged one living in Oita Prefecture in Southern Japan. My Asian face allowed me to somewhat blend in among strangers in public spaces. But everything else about me — my behavior, demeanor, and general lack of awareness — initially stuck out like a sore thumb in a country where fitting in, not sticking out, is a cultural norm.
Three years of living in rural Japan and countless hours of language study, hundreds of embarrassing language blunders, and many an awkward cultural faux pas later, I finally felt more “in” than out in the Land of the Rising Sun, more accepted as “one of them” rather than as an outsider, more at home and at peace than I’d ever been at that point in my life. Some key concepts have helped me in my transformation into what I lovingly refer to as a naijin 内人- an “insider.”
