内国人
Naikokujin was a term that had its heyday during the days of the
Japanese Empire, especially during the second
Sino-Japanese War. A
naikokujin, or "inner country person," was a national of any of Japan's overseas holdings from
Korea to
Indonesia, in contrast to a
gaikokujin, or "outer country person," which referred to people from outside the Empire. They were
not Japanese
citizens, and could only become Japanese citizens through an
arduous test of feats of might.
The concept of naikokujin as opposed to gaikokujin (or gaijin) is still found in Japanese society today. While Koreans and Chinese in Japan are almost never called gaijin, they are never afforded the same level of respect that a real nihonjin would receive, even if they speak Japanese perfectly and have lived in Japan since birth.
When I was going to
Ogimachi Senior High School in
Osaka,
oh so long ago, one of my best friends there was a guy from
Shanghai. He had taken a
Japanese name (with four
kanji, even, not three as most
Chinese names would be), spoke Japanese perfectly (if not better than everyone else in the class), and yet all the kids hated him. Sure, he wasn't getting daily
stonings or anything, but you could just tell that
he wasn't welcome there. So while li'l old
gaijin me was picking up
schoolgirls in the hallway, my Chinese friend was sitting alone. That's why
it sucks to be a
naikokujin: people just don't want to have anything to do with you.