Stop using the word "Jap"

[omoneru]

The word, Jap, is a bit offensive to me as Japanese.

I understand the majority of people here do not use it with bad intentions so I usually tried to ignore it, but truth is it's not pleasant. To me, it's no different from saying chink to chinese or frog to french peopole, and the existence of people using it without the real knowledge of the term doesn't really make it OK.

Some Japanese people who have no knowledge of English sometimes use the term occasionally, but that's not very common. Some Japanese use it to make parody out of something, just like black comedians sometimes call themselves niggers in comedy routines. But these are also not a common usage.

Since the majority in the society continue to regard the term in a derogatory way (you won't see a word like "Jap" in New York Times) and because there still are racists who are happy to see/use the term, and because Japanese people who have some knowledge of English take it as offensive, there really is no need to insist on using the spicific term. If abbreviations are needed, I believe "JP", "JPN", or simply "J" are good to use.