Why is “a Japanese” offensive?

Question

When talking about a person from Japan, why is it offensive to say "a Japanese" rather than "a Japanese person"?

The English language Wiktionary says

(person in or from Japan): The singular “a Japanese” is less common than locutions using the adjective, such as “a Japanese person”, and is considered potentially offensive by many speakers.

but doesn't explain why it is offensive.

Allwords.com says

Note: many people object to the usage of this sense in singular form, and it is now more frequent to see a person in or from Japan referred to by using the adjective Japanese. Rather than "a Japanese," you will frequently see "a Japanese person."''

but again, there's no explanation.

Answer 1

I found an answer in this article: 「私は日本人です」は、I am a Japanese. それとも"I am Japanese?

In English there is a distinction between nationalities that end in 'ian' like Canadian or Italian and those that end in 'ese' like Japanese or Burmese.

Those that have the 'ian' can say 'I am Canadian' or 'I am a Canadian' interchangeably, but usually in English the 'ese' ones don't use the 'a' when they're referring to people--unless it is being used as an adjective.

You could say "That is a Japanese person" (where Japanese is an adjective describing the word 'person')

This convention also applies to nationalities that end in 'ish' as well, as in 'I am British' or 'I am Scottish' --though Scotland is a different case because they could say, "I am Scottish" or "I am a Scot".

I don't really know why this convention exists, but saying 'I am a Chinese' to a native speaker would be very strange for them.

Answer 2

'A Japanese' implies the Japanese person is a thing, and not a person. This is what deems it offensive.

'A Japanese Person' implies the Japanese person is just that - a person, and is therefore considered fine for use.

If the race requires an an, it is no longer offensive - due to the lack of bluntness in the phrase. 'An American' isn't offensive.

As well as this, a native speaker would think that 'He is a Japanese' sounds incorrect - it fails to flow, whereas 'He is a Japanese person' does.

Answer 3

Because apparently there is a factoid on the Internet, either based on or sustained by an article in China Daily, (viewable here) that claims that the ending -ese is used in English only for certain Asian peoples (examples include Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese) and it then makes an unfounded historical argument to assert that this shows that English and/or English speakers (and other Europeans, by using the corresponding ending in their languages) are "racist" towards these peoples.

However this claim can be rebutted by showing that the ending -ese is used for non-Asian peoples, including Portuguese, Maltese, Viennese, Milanese, etc.

And, anyway, the usage note at Wikitionary lacked any verifiable citation and has been changed to something more sensible:

Usage notes
As with all nouns formed from -ese, the countable singular form ("I am a Japanese") is uncommon and often taken as incorrect, although it is rather frequent in East Asia as a translation for the demonyms written 日本人 in Chinese characters (Japanese kanji).

Answer 4

Here is another theory based on historical linguistics: I think the offense partly comes from it not being grammatical. The same is true for "French", "English" or "Welsh". These are older nationality adjectives. (Slightly over-simplifying, the -ish/sh/ch ending is Old English; the -ese ending is French; the -ian/an is Latin, which, counter-intuitively, is often used more recently to make nationality adjectives in English.)

The older words (-ish/-ese) are adjectives, nouns referring to the language, or collective nouns referring to the people (eg the English, the Portuguese, the Japanese). Many of these have different words for individuals (eg a Spaniard, a Scot, a Swede). The newer words (-ian/an) are adjectives, nouns referring to the language, or nouns referring to individuals (eg an American, a German, an Ethiopian). So referring to "a Japanese" would be like talking about "a furniture".

Also, there is a derogatory sense of words ending in "-ese", as we can see in words like "legalese", "officialese" or "educationese", but it's difficult to say whether the suffix "ese" is intrinsically derogatory, or whether it became derogatory because of anti-asian discrimination.

To add confusion, some of these adjectives have come into English from other languages (French or Late Latin) and some have been made in English. When countries have appeared or come into view needing an adjective, using Latin has been the default. Also adding an "n" may be natural for countries ending in "a" such as Korea or Malaysia. But Asian countries have often had "ese" applied, such as Taiwanese (who used to be called Formosan) and Vietnamese.

More interesting still is Congolese, which used to be Congoese, but was replaced by the French word Congolais.

Answer 5

The real reason is that "Are you a Japanese?" signals stereotypical thinking. It suggests that you have a shelf in your mind for "the Japanese" and you want to make sure you're putting them where they belong. It sounds discriminatory and hence offensive in a world increasingly affected by political correctness.

Answer 6

It's offensive in English because it's offensive in Japanese. A Japanese person would be translated as 'nihonjin' where 'jin' means person. Omitting the word 'jin' makes the phrase at best meaningless, at worst rude and incorrect. Rather like saying "He's an Irish". As the Japanese people are possibly the most polite in the world, we should respect their language and culture.