Here's a sort of riddle I found coming out of Narita airport arrivals...the second time round. On the first sign, in Japanese it says 'Welcome back' (okaeri nasai), whilst on the second sign in English, it says 'Welcome to Japan' (which would most likely be youkoso e nihon).
Unless I missed some subtle nuance of the expression 'okaeri nasai', this must mean that Japan just assumes that people who speak Japanese ARE Japanese who LIVE in Japanese and were BORN in Japan. Where as people who understand English are clearly foreigners who don't understand Japanese and didn't come from Japan in the first place.
So what about the people who understand both English and Japanese? I must admit I was a little confused which phrase to take in and reflect on!
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