"Gaijin Hunters:" Who are they and how do I avoid them?

Some of you may have heard the term "gaijin hunter" (gaijin hantā or 外人ハンター) before. For those of you who haven't, gaijin, in Japanese, means "foreigner," so this term refers to someone who "hunts" or targets foreigners. I imagine Japan is not unique in this, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to know about instances in any other cultures, so I'm reporting from a purely Japanese standpoint.

I am not writing this to scare you, I am not writing this to make a broad statement about all Japanese people, and I am certainly not claiming that there are not people from my own country or elsewhere who act like this. However, these are real experiences I've had a significant number of times, so it is worth warning you so you don't get hurt or waste your time in or outside of Japan.

A gaijin hunter is simply a Japanese person who targets foreigners. The goals of these "hunters" are quite various, but they all commonly specifically seek out foreigners for one reason or another. I heard about these people well before I came to Japan. I was living in Los Angeles at the time, where there is a relatively large Japanese population, and I encountered many gaijin hunters there before I came to Japan (despite them being the foreigners). Since coming to Japan, I have come into contact with countless hunters, as well, so I can verify that this is a very real issue.

A gaijin hunter can be a man or a woman, and they can target men, women, or any foreigner regardless of gender--it really depends on their motive. Here are, in my experience, the three most common gaijin hunters.

"Foreigner as Fashion" Hunter
This type is one who collects foreigners because gaijin are currently very en vogue in Japan. Hanging out with foreigners implies to others that the hunter is worldly and probably speaks English or some other language. There are some of these FAF's at my school, where there are a lot of international students. They're easy to spot because no matter when you see them they're always surrounded by foreigners with no Japanese in sight. A tendency with this kind of hunter in particular, who collects foreigners to constitute a group (rather than individuals), you will probably find that they don't really pay attention to what you say or talk about anything incredibly personal with you. I had a friend get hunted by an FAF recently; my friend got invited to lunch and assumed it would just be the two of them, but when she arrived there were a bunch of other people at the table, and they were all foreigners. The hunter didn't speak much English, didn't introduce my friend to any of them, and the most conversation my friend had was the hunter making statements like, "This is my scarf," and "These are my earrings. Do you want to touch?" This girl clearly wanted to be seen surrounded by foreigners and didn't much care to interact with any of them individually.

"Foreigner for Fluency" Hunter
These hunters want to be around foreigners so they can get their English or other foreign language skills very good. This is one of the most common types in my experience. These hunters are very, very easy to pick out because if you speak Japanese to them, they will never or rarely respond to you in Japanese. I had a conversation partner in Los Angeles who was like this. I met him very early on in my studies when I couldn't carry on a conversation, so I didn't notice so much at first, but eventually his obstinance became very pronounced and I stopped seeing him. He reached out to me a few months later (in English, of course) and I wrote back that I was taking a language pledge for an immersion program to speak only Japanese for eight weeks and specifically told him to write back to me in Japanese, and he still wrote back in English. Unbelievable.

I'm not suggesting that there is some inherent obligation of the Japanese person to practice Japanese with you (if you're studying), but with FAF's there is a clear avoidance of using English (or whatever your language is, if they speak it). In the case of the guy I just mentioned, we met through a conversation exchange website. He was very concerned about advancing his English in order to maintain his visa to stay in the States, which is entirely understandable, but our entire relationship was predicated on language exchange, so that was selfish of him not to practice with me.

A note about the Foreign for Fluency hunter: it's happened to me a few times where this kind of hunter will speak or write to me in Japanese for the first few days, or weeks that we're in touch, but then they suddenly just stop using Japanese and never go back.

"Foreigner as Trophy Wife/Husband" or "Foreigner as Datable Object" Hunter
This is another very common hunter. Probably the easiest way to pick the FATW/H and FADO hunters is that they will bring up dating very early. This is a huge red flag and based on my experience is reason enough to move on. Other than that, I think you'll sense that they're not really talking to you; there's some kind of removed quality about them. I once had a FATW hunter tell me he "used to like black chicks up until last summer but now he likes white girls." That should be a pretty clear indicator (and that was in the States, btw)! This guy also found out about my YouTube channel and watched every single video, and he also lost it when I told him I didn't want to talk to him anymore, telling me he had a cold the day we met and I didn't get the right impression of him and so forth (we'd chatted back and forth for a week or two and met in person once). I recently had an experience here in Osaka with a guy who got connected with me through a mutual acquaintance because he was looking for an English teacher (no pay, just casual). I like teaching, I like meeting new people, and I guess I am ridiculously giving of my time, so I decided to give it a shot. I learned my lesson about sharing my YouTube channel, but this guy found and watched every single video I have posted on Facebook after we'd been connected (the videos are all quite old--I'd forgotten they were there). He was very pushy and impatient, calling me on Facebook Messenger and sending me messages all the time before we'd even met, and when we met the one time (why did I even bother), he brought up dating and I told him I was not interested. Yet, the next thing I know he's trying to make multiple plans very far in advance to drive me to Nara (over an hour's drive), baseball games, and so on, as well as suggesting we go to karaoke this weekend, which has nothing to do with me teaching him English.

All of the hunters have one trait in common that is easy to notice: they will approach you. The Japanese tend to be very shy, so it is seriously uncommon for one of them to just go up to a foreigner and start talking. I am not at all suggesting that every Japanese person who approaches you is a gaijin hunter, but be on your guard. Some Japanese people are just particularly outgoing or confident, or they may have lived abroad or grown up around foreigners. People in the Kansai region also tend to be pretty friendly, so don't assume that anyone who strikes up a conversation with you is a hunter--just watch for red flags. The Foreigner for Fluency hunter is the easiest one to spot very early on if you're studying and confident enough to converse; it becomes clear very quickly, so I just make a mental note not to waste my time with them.

There are other kinds of hunters, to be sure, but these are probably the three most common. There can be overlap, and some hunters can be all three of these.

Being a hunter does not make someone an inherently bad person, but it does reflect their self-centered motives, and using foreigners in this way is discrimination. Using anyone, period, is already bad enough but using behavior that is markedly different from how you act with your fellow nationals when you're around people of a certain race or nationality is wrong.

The good news is that I have never felt that my safety was at risk--particularly with the hunters who are trying to date foreigners, I've never been pressured to go somewhere or do something with them.

Studying a foreign language and being interested in a culture or a place is great, but it can be easy to idealize that place and everything (and everyone) in it. I am not sharing this information with you to corrupt your idea of Japan or imply that everyone here is evil and you should be scared. However, I think the best of people by nature and have tended in the past to give chances over and over for people to prove me wrong. I didn't want to believe that people were trying to use me, but I have had innumerable encounters with these hunters. I am sharing this in the hopes of educating you and saving you a lot of wasted hours with people who aren't worth your time. Thank you for reading. Till next time!