Gaijin

Similarly composed words that refer to foreign things include gaikoku (外国, 'foreign country') and gaisha (外車, 'foreign car').

When British and Dutch adventurers such as William Adams arrived in the early 17th century, they were usually known as kōmōjin ('red-haired people'),[21] a term cognate to one used in modern Hokkien Chinese.

As the Empire of Japan extended to Korea and to Taiwan, the term naikokujin ('within-country people') came to refer to nationals of other imperial territories.

[25] While all forms of the word mean 'foreigner' or 'outsider', in practice gaijin and gaikokujin are commonly used to refer to foreigners of non-East Asian ethnicities.

[citation needed] Special permanent residents with ancestry from Japan's wartime colonies, mostly Koreans, are known as zainichi (在日), while for ethnic Chinese specifically kakyō (華僑) is also used.

[30][31] Gaijin is also commonly used within Japanese events such as baseball (there is a limit to non-Japanese players in NPB) and professional wrestling to collectively refer to the visiting performers from the West who will frequently tour the country.