"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 certainly not completely out of date or out of touch with current Japan.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.