There was a time, not all that long ago, when the very sight of a foreigner in Japan would provoke shouts of Gaijin! Never could figure out who it was aimed at. Everyone else could see for themselves that there was a foreigner in the vicinity—and the foreigner did not need to be told.
Somehow the English word “foreigner!” doesn’t have the same zip. Gaijin, qablunaaq, haole . . .