Nisei is a person born in the U.S. of parents who emigated from Japan. Are there other terms like this? How about in the U.K.?

Sure. Isei is first generation - the immigrants themselves; sensei is thrid. I hope I got the spelling right, since this is from memory.

Issei is first-generation Japanese in the United States; i.e., those who immigrated from Japan in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Nisei is second-generation Japanese; i.e, the offspring of Issei.

Sansei is third-generation Japanese; i.e., the childred of Nisei.

Yonsei is forth-generation Japanese.

These four generations are collectively referred to as Nikkei.

Interestingly, according to M-W Online, the term Issei wasn't coined until 1937, while Nisei originated in 1929. Sansei dates to 1940. I'm surmising that there was no need for a special term for the early Japanese immigrants. When they began having children, a new term was needed to designate the new generation. Since the new generation was Nisei (or second generation), it was only logical that the original immigrants (the first generation) should become to be known as Issei.

Sensei means teacher in Japanese and is a term of respect.

R. Russel Nakatsu is a third generation Japanese American who maintains the Nikkei Home Page, where you can find historical background on Issei, Nisei, Sansei and Kibei.

Tinman

[This message was edited by tinman on Tue Aug 5th, 2003 at 19:51.]

Thank you, tinman. You used one term I didn't recognize from your wonderful discussion, so I looked it up. "Those Nisei who returned to Japan for education are called the Kibei."

On checking, I wonder if "first generation" is precisely the meaning of issei.. That would mean that issei includes a Japanese who immigrated in 2002.

But it instead seems to mean a specific generation. Wikipedia speaks specifically of the generation who immigrated to the U.S. before the Immigration Act of 1924. Infoplease speaks of very roughly the same group: those who immigrated after 1907 and were ineligible for citizenship in 1952.

That timing roughly checks with the next two generations being, as Wikipedia indicates:

• nisei- the generation that reached adulthood around WWII, and
  
• sansei - the generation of the "baby boom".

It also checks with the fact that yonsei, meaning the sansei's children, is a word so new it's not yet in the one-look dictionaries.