Marutei Tsurunen
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Marutei Tsurunen (ツルネン マルテイ or 弦念 丸呈 Tsurunen Marutei, born 1940-04-30) is the first European and openly foreign-born Japanese member of the Diet of Japan (a Korean had previously served in the Diet, but presented himself as Japanese). He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, where he serves as Director General of the International Department.
He joins Sarkis Assadourian, Nabih Berri, Gisèle Halimi, Tom Lantos, Pierre Lellouche, Amir Peretz, Jacques Saada and Dominique de Villepin among politicians who are serving or have served in a legislature in a country other than their country of birth.
[edit] Biography
He was born Martti Turunen in Jaakonvaara, Finland.
In 1967, at the age of 27, he traveled to Japan as a lay missionary of the Lutheran Church, accompanied by his first wife, who was also Finn (they later divorced). [1]
In 1974, when he was 34, he met his second wife, Sachiko, and he became enamored with the country. Having decided to become Japanese, he gained his citizenship in 1979, at the age of 39, and took on a Japanese version of his Finnish name.
Over the next decade, Tsurunen completed the first Finnish translations of The Tale of Genji and several other Japanese books while teaching English in Kanagawa prefecture.
He has two children, an older daughter and a son.
[edit] Politics
In 1992, at the age of 52, he ran for the town assembly in Yugawara and was elected. He subsequently wrote a popular book called Here Comes a Blue-Eyed Assemblyman (青い目の議員がゆく Aoi me no giin ga yuku?).
He served on the Yugawara assembly until 1995, when he made his first bid for the House of Councillors and lost.
In 2001, after writing another book called I Want to Be Japanese (日本人になりたい Nihonjin ni naritai?), Tsurunen again failed to achieve a seat but was the first runner-up for the DPJ.
After the resignation of Kyosen Ohashi, Tsurunen finally entered the House of Councillors on 2002-10-04. His seat was not up for election in the election of 2004.
