Tweet
The controversy surrounding the term “internet-café refugees” is particularly illustrative. Some years back, this new word was formed and spread within Japanese society. According to the term’s originator, internet-café refugees are people who regularly spend the night in 24-hour Internet cafés, mainly due to their inability to secure access to a fixed address ... continue to article
-
-
That sounds really bad. Being a refugee isn't really a very good experience it all since this means that you are fleeing for whatever kind of persecution that your country is suffering. Those people who started this neologism might not really have done it intentionally. They are manga creators so they need to be imaginative. I think this is a term that they just thought of using for people those people staying in internet cafes for 24 hours straight just so they can describe them easier in their literally works. The internet marketing community made a good call to stop this neologism before spreading. -
Not only it is a bad term, it does connotes additional negative meaning to two terms which are the refugees and Internet cafe users. These are the kind of terms that will get around and be normalized without realizing that it will give stigma to the people that are actually refugees and normal people who uses Internet cafes. Japan even have a bad record of discrimination and being judgmental for people that are called or being suggested that are otaku. I can imagine people who doesn't simply go to Internet cafe being treated badly in the future by people assuming they are "Internet cafe refugees" and having misunderstanding of being someone who takes advantage of another country's fortune just by being called a refugee.Comment
Comment