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Etymological prescriptivism is not really a tenable point in linguistics. You can argue that, for instance, in American English the Dutch word 'rekening' (bill) is abused as reckoning. And you can find literally thousands of examples like that.
I'm this case a non native speaker used the American English vernacular correctly. You argue that the word is used incorrectly in this vernacular, and it is very peculiar and steeped in the racial discourse of the country. However it's usage was correct in this case.
I mean, sure, you Japanese person you. No silly, being called Japanese has nothing to do with being from Japan, why would you even think that?
You are not adressing my argument at all and being obtuse.
I am trying to demonstrate how absurd it is to use the demonym for one region of the world to refer to the inhabitants of a completely different part of the world
I understand that, and I don't dispute that either. I only point out that that is how language works. Your free to discuss the intricacies and weirdness of how that term became to mean that.
However you can't berate a language user (certainly a non native speaker) for using the term in it's connotation. It's like shaming someone calling the Magyar people 'Hungarian'.