Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:52, 30 September 2008

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (August 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Debito Arudou (有道 出人, Arudō Debito) is a Japanese author and an activist against racial discrimination in Japan.

Background

Early life

Arudou was born David Christopher Aldwinckle in California in 1965. He attended Cornell University, first visiting Japan as a tourist on invitation from Ayako Sugawara (菅原文子, Sugawara Ayako) , his pen pal and future wife, for several weeks in 1986. Following this experience, he dedicated his senior year as an undergraduate to studying Japanese, graduating in 1987. Aldwinckle then taught English in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, for one year, and "swore against ever being a language teacher again, plunging instead into business." After returning to the United States to enter the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Aldwinckle deferred from the program in order to return to Japan, whereupon he married in 1989 and spent one year at the Japan Management Academy in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture. In 1990, he returned to California to complete his Masters of Public and International Affairs (MPIA), and received the degree in 1991.

Aldwinckle then joined a small Japanese trading company in Sapporo. It was this experience, he recounts, that started him down the path of the controversial activist that he would later become. "This was a watershed in my life," Arudou writes. "… and it polarized my views about how I should live it. Although working made my Japanese really good — answering phones and talking to nasty, racist, and bloody-minded construction workers from nine to six — there was hell to pay every single day." Arudou said that he was the object of racial harassment. Aldwinckle quit the company. In 1993 he joined the faculty of Business Administration and Information Science at the Hokkaido Information University, a private university in Ebetsu, Hokkaidō, teaching courses in English as a foreign language. As of 2007, he is an associate professor.

Japanese naturalization

Aldwinckle became a permanent resident of Japan in 1996. He obtained Japanese citizenship in 2000, whereupon he changed his name to Debito Arudou (有道出人, Arudō Debito), whose kanji he says have the figurative meaning of "a person who has a road and is going out on it." To allow his wife and children to retain their Japanese family name, he adopted the legal name Arudoudebito Sugawara (菅原有道出人, Sugawara Arudōdebito) — a combination of his wife’s Japanese maiden name and his new transliterated full name. As reasons for naturalization he cited the right to vote, other rights, and increased ability to stand on his rights; he later renounced his U.S. citizenship as required by Japanese law.

Family and divorce

Ayako Sugawara gave birth to two daughters. Arudou described one of his children as "viewed as Japanese because of her looks" and the other as "relegated to gaijin status, same as I" because of physical appearances. According to Arudou's writings, when he took his family to the Yunohana Onsen to test the rules of the onsen, the establishment allowed for one girl to enter the onsen and refused entry to the other on the basis of their appearances.

Arudou said that he divorced his wife in September 2006. Following the divorce, Arudou petitioned the Sapporo Family Court to delete his ex-wife’s Japanese maiden family name from his koseki, or Family Registry, thus officially changing his name to Debito Arudou in November 2006.

Activism

Otaru onsen lawsuit

Arudou was one of three plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Yunohana Onsen in Otaru, Hokkaidō. Yunohana maintained a policy to exclude non-Japanese patrons; the business stated that it implemented the policy after Russian sailors scared away patrons from one of its other facilities. After reading an e-mail posted to a mailing list digest complaining of Yunohana's policy in 1999, Arudou visited the hot spring (onsen), along with a small group of Japanese, White, and East Asian friends, in order to confirm that only visibly non-Japanese people were excluded.

Arudou assumed that when he returned in 2000 as a naturalized Japanese citizen, he would not be refused. The manager accepted that Arudou was a Japanese national but refused entry on the grounds that his foreign appearance could cause existing Japanese customers to assume the onsen was admitting foreigners, i.e drunk Russian sailors which were causing problems in that locality, and take their business elsewhere.

Arudou and two co-plaintiffs, Kenneth Lee Sutherland and Olaf Karthaus, in February 2001 then sued Yunohana on the grounds of racial discrimination, and the City of Otaru for violation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, a treaty which Japan ratified in 1996. On November 11, 2002, the Sapporo District Court ordered Yunohana to pay the plaintiffs 1 million JPY each (about $25,000 United States dollars in total) in damages. The court stated that "refusing all foreigners without exception is 'unrational discrimination' can be said to go beyond permissible societal limits." The Sapporo High Court dismissed Arudou's claim against the city of Otaru for failing to create an anti-discrimination ordinance; the court ruled that the claim did not have merit. The Sapporo High Court upheld these rulings on September 16, 2004 and the Supreme Court of Japan denied review on April 7, 2005.

Other protests

In 2003, Arudou dressed up as seal and joined a group protesting the decision by Nishi Ward, Yokohama to grant Tama-chan the seal an honorary jūminhyō (residency registration), a right denied to foreign residents.

In February 2007, Arudou protested against the book Kyōgaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura File - Gaijin Hanzai Hakusho 2007 (Secret Foreigner Crime Files). Arudou posted a bilingual letter for readers to take to FamilyMart stores protesting against "discriminatory statements and images about non-Japanese residents of Japan."

In 2008, Arudou lodged a complaint with the Hokkaidō Prefectural Police, claiming that its officers were targeting foreigners as part of a security sweep prior to the 34th G8 summit in Tōyako, Hokkaidō. This followed an incident where Arudou refused to show identification when requested by a police officer at New Chitose Airport. After meeting with police representatives at their headquarters, Arudou held a press conference, which he described as the "third-best press conference I’ve ever done". The press conference was covered by a local television station.

Methods

Arudou maintains an active online profile. In her review of 'Japanese Only' (see "Publications" below), Yuki Honjo praised Arudou's "comprehensive website with thousands of pages of material" as an "excellent resource". Nevertheless, Honjo noted that "Arudou's brand of 'Internet activism'... seems almost quaint" and his lack of engagement with more contemporary protest methods, such as flash mobs, blogs or wikis, essentially means "he remains the old-fashioned pamphleteer." Arudou has since set up a blog where he comments on an almost daily basis.

Alex Kerr, author of the book Dogs and Demons has criticised Arudou for his "openly combative attitude", an approach that Kerr thinks usually "fails" in Japan and may reinforce the conservative belief "that gaijin are difficult to deal with". Nevertheless, he comments that "perhaps we who live here are slow to stick our necks out...and quick to self-censor...to get along....". He also sees Arudou's decision to naturalise as bringing "the dialogue inside Japan. His activities reveal the fact that gaijin and their gaijin ways are now a part of the fabric of Japan's new society."

Publications

Arudou has written a book about the 1999 Otaru hot springs incident. Arudou originally wrote the book in Japanese; the English version, Japanese Only — The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (ISBN 4-7503-2005-6), was published in 2004 and revised in 2006. Jeff Kingston, reviewer for The Japan Times, described the book as an "excellent account of his struggle against prejudice and racial discrimination."

The book also generated negative responses. In 2005, Yuki Allyson Honjo released a review of "Japanese Only" on Japanreview.net which attracted considerable feedback and prompted responses from well-known expatriates in Japan, including Gregory Clark, Peter Tasker, Robert Dujarric and Arudou himself. In her review, Honjo says that "As a primary resource, Japanese Only is virtually unusable" due to bad punctuation, "self-indulgent writing" and "stylistic devices that detract from the 'record.'". Most of the published responses to Honjo's review were critical of Arudou and his methods.

His second book was coauthored with Akira Higuchi (樋口 彰, Higuchi Akira) and titled Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants and Immigrants to Japan. This was a bilingual book, which provided information on visas, starting businesses, securing jobs, resolving legal problems, and planning for the future from entry into Japan to death. Donald Richie of The Japan Times noted that out of the guides for new residents in Japan, Handbook was the fullest and consequently the best.

Arudou has also written pieces for the on-line academic website Japan Focus and had his work published by the Japan Policy Research Institute, which later placed his article online when it moved to a web format.

Arudou writes a guest column, "Just Be Cause", for The Japan Times. In August 2008, Arudou drew an analogy between the words "gaijin" and "nigger", arguing that the status of "gaijin" as politically incorrect was well deserved. This prompted a large reader response, with most of the published responses finding the analogy inappropriate.

Notes

1. Brooke, James (2004-05-12). "LETTER FROM ASIA; Foreigners Try to Melt an Inhospitable Japanese City". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-03. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
2. ^ Arudou, Debito. "A Bit More Personal Background on Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle," Debito.Org
3. "THE JUUMINHYOU MONDAI: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE "LEGALLY NONRESIDENT" IN OUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE," Arudou Debito
4. "Wife," Arudou Debito
5. ^ "French, Howard W. (2000-11-29). "Nanporo Journal; Turning Japanese: It Takes More Than a Passport". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-03. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
6. A brief mention of Aldwinckle and his book, Japanese Only, is made in the Cornell Alumni Magazine Online, Mar/Apr 2005 Volume 107 Number 5, available at: <http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/Archive/2005marapr/depts/Authors.html>. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
7. A brief biographical sketch of Aldwinckle and other 1991 UCSD IR/PS alumni is available at the official university website. See: <http://irps.ucsd.edu/alumni/class-notes/class-of-1991.htm Class of 1991>. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
8. "Schoo of Distance/Satellite Education Syllabus." Hokkaido Information University
9. Arudou, Debito. "What's in my Name? Japanese Naturalization Update," Debito.Org, August 24, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
10. Arudou, Debito. "How to Lose Your American Passport," Debito.Org, January 10, 2003.
11. "Dave Aldwinckle - daughters," Dave Aldwinckle's website on voicenet.co.jp
12. Arudou, Debito. "Japanese Only Presentation in English," Arudou Debito
13. Arudou, Debito. "Japanese Only Presentation in Japanese," Arudou Debito
14. Arudou, Debito. “Debito.org Special Edition Newsletter: How to Get a Divorce in Japan,”, December 2, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-14
15. Arudou, Debito. “Debito.org Newsletter: Bianchi, Johnston, Immigration, & losing my name,” December 14, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
16. Arudou, Debito. Japanese Only — The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan, (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2004), pp. 14–29.
17. Arudou, Debito. "The Trip to 'Gaijin-Okotowari' Onsen," Debito.Org, September 19, 1999.
18. French, Howard W. "Turning Japanese: It Takes More Than a Passport," The New York Times, November 29, 2000
19. "THE WORLD; Japanese Court Ruling Favors Foreigners; Bathhouse must pay three men who were denied entry." Los Angeles Times. November 12, 2002.
20. Arudou, Debito. "The Otaru Lawsuit Decision and its Possible Effects," Debito.Org, November 12, 2002.
21. ^ Newswire, "City Off the Hook for Bathhouse Barring of Foreigners," The Japan Times Online, April 7, 2005. According to the Sapporo High Court ruling, "The convention has only general, abstract provisions recommending appropriate measures to eliminate racial discrimination, and the Otaru government does not have any obligation to institute ordinances to ban such discrimination." For a look at the original (Japanese) Supreme Court decision, see "Japan Supreme Court Decision on the Otaru Onsen Case," Debito.Org, April 7, 2005. Cite error: The named reference "Otaru_Case" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
22. Arudou, Debito. "Preliminary Report on the Otaru Onsen Lawsuit: Sapporo High Court Decision," Debito.Org, September 16, 2004.
23. Asahi Shinbun, 22 February 2003
24. Arudou, Debito (1 February 2007). "Gaijin Hanzai File" pubs spectre of evil foreign crime". Debito.org. Retrieved 2007-02-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
25. Stuart Biggs and Kanoko Matsuyama (7 February 2007). "Japan Store Withdraws `Foreigner Crime File' Magazine". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2007-02-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
26. The Japan Times. "," Police questioning 'discriminatory' , June 26, 2008.
27. Arudou, Debito. "," Debito.Org, June 25, 2008.
28. STV News. June 25, 2008.
29. [http://www.japanreview.net/review_arudou_and_lazlo.htm 'The Dave and Tony Show', Japanreview.net January 2005.
30. 'The Japan Times. 'Japan sees beginning of change', 25 October 2005.
31. "Bathhouse pushes a foreigner into the doghouse." The Japan Times.
32. 'The Dave and Tony Show', Japan Review.net, January 2005
33. 'Letters', Japan Review.net, January 2005
34. Donald Richie. The Japan Times. Helping newcomers settle in Japan. April 20, 2008
35. "Debito Arudou/Dave Aldwinckle's Publications," Debito.Org
36. Debito Arudou. The Japan Times. Editorial. Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin'. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008.
37. Wayne Malcolm. The Japan Times. An exaggeration in any context. August 24, 2008.

Reference links

• Patrick Rial,"Debito Arudou: Evangelic Activist or Devilish Demonstrator?," JapanZine (December 2005)
• The first of a three-part interview with Arudou Debito on Yamato Damacy (February 2006)
• Interview with Debito Arudou on Trans-Pacific Radio's Seijigiri (March 8, 2007)
• Comparative Review of Japanese Only and My Darling is a Foreigner by Yuki Allyson Honjo
• Bathroom blues The Economist

External links

• Debito.org Podcast, distributed by Trans-Pacific Radio
• Debito.org- Debito Arudou's website and blog

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from August 2008
• 1965 births
• Foreign educators in Japan
• Japanese people of American descent
• Naturalized citizens of Japan
• Civil rights activists
• Living people
• Japanese-language writers
• University of California, San Diego alumni
• Cornell University alumni