"Sean Holland" <seanholland@pants.telus.net> wrote in message
news:BD70C2E4.114D4%seanholland@pants.telus.net...
> in article pJC2d.4283$Qv5.4111@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com, Musashi at
> Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp wrote on 9/17/04 7:42 AM:
>
> >
> > "Sean Holland" <seanholland@pants.telus.net> wrote in message
> > news:BD6F7CA1.1149D%seanholland@pants.telus.net...
> >> in article qFh2d.3024$Jt6.599@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com, Musashi at
> >> Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp wrote on 9/16/04 7:44 AM:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> "Sean Holland" <seanholland@pants.telus.net> wrote in message
> >>> news:BD6E2542.11453%seanholland@pants.telus.net...
> >>>> in article CsZ1d.2761$rX7.916@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com, Musashi at
> >>>> Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp wrote on 9/15/04 8:45 AM:
> >>>> (snip)
> >>>>> Now, this whole thread started because some website claimed that the
> >>> term
> >>>>> "eskimo" was
> >>>>> offensive to the actual people because thats not what they call
> >>> themselves.
> >>>>> I merely pointed out that Japanese in Japan don;t call themselves
> >>> "Asian"
> >>>>> either.
> >>>>> Although now that I've said this, we don't call ourselves "Japanese"
> > or
> >>> our
> >>>>> country
> >>>>> "Japan" either.
> >>>>
> >>>> It depends on the Japanese. I know plenty of Japanese both in Japan
and
> > in
> >>>> Canada who would refer to themselves as Asian or 東洋人 if the
> >>> conversation
> >>>> led to it. It seems, in part, to be a marker of one's position on the
> >>>> political spectrum.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Another interesting point that my wife brought
up....Japanese-Americans
> > who
> >>> speak Japanese,
> >>> or Japanese who have been in the US for a very long time fall out of
> > sync
> >>> with the changes in
> >>> the Japanese language. Hence, a Japanese who has been out of Japan for
a
> >>> long time may tend
> >>> to use 東洋人 simply because his/her parents, grandparents used it.
And
> > that
> >>> person has been
> >>> away from Japan long enough to not be aware that アジアン　or アジア人
> > has
> >>> replaced it.
> >>>
> >>> Musashi
> >>
> >> I certain that you're right about that. However, in the case of my
> > partner,
> >> she's been in Canada about 12 years or so, but has shown no signs of
> > having
> >> the slightest interest in becoming Canadian. She works with Japanese
and
> > is
> >> in frequent contact with Japanese who are just "passing through." She
> > reads
> >> the Japanese papers on the net and so on. So while she is certainly not
up
> >> to speed on each incremental change in the pop culture, she is also
> >> certainly not completely out of date or out of touch with current
Japan.
> >>
> >
> > From first hand experience I can tell you that the above you described
is
> > insufficient to become
> > aware of all the changes that are happening to the Japanese language in
> > Japan.
> >
>   So you're saying that 東洋人 has passed out of use in Japan in the last
> decade? And that it has passed out of use in such a way that only those
who
> are monitoring the linguistic situation on a daily basis in-country will
be
> aware of the changes?
>
>

I doubt within the past decade. Probably earlier. But what makes it so hard
to determine
is that  東洋　and 東洋人 are not words which were/are commonly used. In
contrast,
西洋 and 西洋人 have more usage even today. Perhaps we should also count
words like
洋食　and 洋服 or　洋菓子　all of which have simply dropped the 西.
So, since 東洋・東洋人 were not commonly used to start with I would say that
yes, nearly
daily in-country monitoring would be needed to notice that the usage has
stopped. Unless of
course the fact that it has stopped being used is brought to a persons
attention specifically.

Musashi