Debito Arudou

Debito Arudou

Debito Arudou in 2014
Born David Christopher Schofill
January 13, 1965
California, USA
Nationality Japanese
Alma mater Cornell University (B.A.) 1987, University of California, San Diego (M.A.) 1991, Meiji Gakuin University (Ph.D.) 2014
Known for Human rights activism
Spouse(s) Ayako Sugawara (divorced)
Website
http://www.debito.org

Debito Arudou (有道 出人 Arudō Debito, born David Christopher Schofill on 13 January 1965) is a Japanese blogger and activist for the rights of foreigners in Japan and also an author and columnist. He was born a US citizen, moved to Japan, and became a naturalized Japanese citizen in the year 2000.

Background

Early life and education

Arudou was born David Christopher Schofill[1] in California in 1965.[2] He was raised in Geneva, New York,[3] and became "David Christopher Aldwinckle" when his stepfather adopted him in the 1970s.[1] He graduated Cornell University in 1987,[4] dedicating his senior year to studying Japanese after visiting his pen pal and future wife in Japan.[5][6][7] Aldwinckle moved to Japan for one year where he taught English in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and later spent one year at the Japan Management Academy in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, before returning to complete a Masters of Pacific International Affairs (MPIA) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).[8]

Arudou joined a small Japanese trading company in Sapporo, where he contends that he was the object of racial harassment.[2] Rather than formally resign, Aldwinckle said he chose to be terminated to receive unemployment insurance benefits.[2] In 1993, Arudou joined the faculty of Business Administration and Information Science at the Hokkaido Information University, a private university in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, where he taught courses in business English and debate. He was an associate professor until 2011 when he left the university.[9] From 2012 to 2013, Arudou was an Affiliate Scholar at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i.[10][11] Meiji Gakuin University awarded him a Doctorate in Philosophy (International Studies) in 2014.[12]

Family and Japanese naturalization

Aldwinckle married Ayako Sugawara in 1987 and they have two daughters. Aldwinckle has described one as "viewed as Japanese because of her looks" and the other as "relegated to gaijin (foreigner) status, same as I" over their physical appearances.[13]

Aldwinckle became a permanent resident of Japan in 1996. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2000, retaining dual nationality via a loophole"[14] before relinquishing his US citizenship in 2002.[15] On becoming Japanese, he changed his name to Arudoudebito Sugawara (菅原 有道出人 Sugawara Arudōdebito), taking his wife's surname.[16][7][17] They were divorced in 2006[18] and Arudou had his name legally changed to Debito Arudou (有道 出人 Arudō Debito).

Activism

Arudou v. Earth Cure

The "Japanese only" sign at the Yunohana Onsen, as it originally appeared in 1999

Arudou objected to the policies of three bathhouses in Hokkaido, Japan, in the late 1990s that had posted "No Foreigners" or "Japanese Only" signs on their doors.[19] He was one of three plaintiffs in a discrimination lawsuit against the Yunohana Onsen (owned by parent company Earth Cure) in Otaru, Hokkaido. Yunohana stated that it implemented the policy after inebriated and unruly 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,[20] Arudou led a multinational group of 17 people of various nationalities (United States, Chinese, German, and Japanese) to enter the bathhouse[19] and test the firmness of the "No Foreigners" policy posted on its door.[16]

The group attempted the walk-ins twice.[19] Between 1999 and 2001, Arudou stated that several participants attempted to negotiate with the bathhouses resulting in the removal of two exclusionary signs from Osupa and Panorama hot springs.[21] According to Arudou, when he took his family to the Yunohana Onsen, the establishment stated that they would allow one of his daughters to enter but refuse the other on the basis of their appearances.[22]

Arudou returned to Yunohana in October 2000 for a third time as a naturalized Japanese citizen, but again was refused entry. The manager accepted that Arudou was a Japanese national, but refused him entry on the grounds that his foreign appearance could cause misunderstandings for their Japanese customers, who would assume that Yunohana was now admitting foreigners.[23] and take their business elsewhere.[7]

Arudou and two co-plaintiffs, Kenneth Lee Sutherland and Olaf Karthaus, in February 2001 sued Earth Cure in district court pleading 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 Earth Cure to pay the plaintiffs ¥1 million each (about US$25,000 in total) in damages.[24] The court stated that "categorically refusing all foreigners constitutes irrational discrimination, exceeds social norms, and amounts to an illegal act."[16] The Sapporo District and High Courts both dismissed Arudou's claim against the city of Otaru for not creating an anti-discrimination ordinance.[25] It stated that "issues such as which measures to take, and how to implement them, are properly left to the discretion of Otaru."[19] The Sapporo High Court upheld these rulings on September 16, 2004,[26] and the Supreme Court of Japan denied review on April 7, 2005.[25]

Secret Files of Foreigners' Crimes

In February 2007, Arudou participated in a protest against an over-the-counter Japanese-language publication titled Kyōgaku no gaijin hanzai ura file - gaijin hanzai hakusho 2007 (Secret Files of Foreigners' Crimes).[27] The magazine highlighted alleged crimes committed by foreigners. Arudou, calling the magazine "ignorant propaganda",[28] argued that "[the magazine] fails the freedom of speech test because it a) willfully spreads hate, fear, and innuendo against a segment of the population, b) fortifies that by lacking any sort of balance in data or presentation, and c) offers sensationalized propaganda in the name of "constructive debate".[29] Arudou posted a bilingual letter for readers to take to FamilyMart stores protesting the sale of the magazine.

Other protests

In 2003, Arudou and several other long-term foreign residents dressed up as seals to protest the granting of an honorary jūminhyō (residency registration) to Tama-chan, a male bearded seal, in Nishi Ward, Yokohama.[30] The protesters asserted that if the government could grant jūminhyō to animals and animation characters, as was the case in Niiza and Kasukabe Cities, Saitama Prefecture,[31] then there was no need to deny foreign residents the same. At the time, non-Japanese residents were registered in a separate alien registration system.[32]

In June 2008, Arudou lodged a complaint with the Hokkaido Prefectural Police that its officers were targeting foreigners as part of a security sweep prior to the 34th G8 summit in Tōyako, Hokkaido.[33] This followed an incident where Arudou asserted his right under the Police Execution of Duties Law to not need 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 covered by a local television station.[34]

In August 2009, Arudou—acting as the chair of FRANCA (the Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association)—began a letter-writing campaign to protest an advertisement by McDonald’s Japan featuring a bespectacled, mildly geeky, 43-year-old American Japanophile known as Mr. James—a burger mascot who proclaims his love for the fast-food outlet in broken katakana Japanese.[35] Writing in The Japan Times, Arudou argued that the "Mr. James" campaign perpetuates negative stereotypes about sensitive non-Japanese Caucasian minorities living in Japan, and demanded that McDonald’s Japan withdraw the advertisement: "Imagine McDonald's, a multinational that has long promoted cultural diversity, launching a McAsia Menu in America featuring a deep-bowing, grimacing Asian in a bathrobe and platform sandals saying 'Me likee McFlied Lice!' or 'So solly, prease skosh honorable teriyaki sandrich?'"[36] Time magazine's Coco Masters concluded: "To protest Mr. James as a stereotype of a minority population in Japan because the Ohio native fails to speak or write Japanese fluently, dresses like a nerd and blogs about burgers only ends up underscoring the fact that there really aren't a lot of foreigners who fit the bill running around Japan."[37]

Doug Struck described Arudou as emerging "as the Outraged Man, tilting at uncomfortable truths about Japanese racial discrimination";[38] Paul Murphy as the "quintessential indefatigable civil rights campaigner";[39] Eric Weiner as an "outspoken man that rejects the notion that there's one Japanese way of doing anything";[40] and himself as a "loudmouth with an Internet connection".[41]

Alex Kerr has criticized 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".[42]

Publications

Arudou wrote a book about the 1999 Otaru hot springs incident. The book was originally published in Japanese; an expanded English version, Japanese Only — The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (ジャパニーズ・オンリー―小樽温泉入浴拒否問題と人種差別 Japanīzu Onrī - Otaru Onsen Nyūyoku Kyohi Mondai to Jinshu Sabetsu) (ISBN 4-7503-2005-6), was published in 2004, revised in 2006, with a 10th anniversary ebook in 2013.[43] The book is listed in the Japan Policy Research Institute's recommended library on Japan.[44]

Arudou's next book, published in 2008, was coauthored with Akira Higuchi (樋口 彰) and titled Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants and Immigrants to Japan (ニューカマー定住ハンドブック). This bilingual book provides information on visas, starting businesses, securing jobs, resolving legal problems, and planning for the future from entry into Japan to death.[45] Handbook came out in 2012 in an updated 2nd Edition[46] and an ebook version in 2013.[43]

Arudou has written a monthly column for the Community section of The Japan Times entitled "Just Be Cause" since 2008, and has contributed occasional opinion columns to the newspaper since 2002.[47] He was also a columnist for the Japan Today[48] website and has been featured in The Asahi Evening News.[49][50]

In 2011, Arudou self-published via Lulu.com his first novella entitled In Appropriate: a novel of culture, kidnapping, and revenge in modern Japan. The novella tells the story of an international marriage, culture shock, and child abduction.[51]

Arudou has published twice in Fodor's Japan Travel Guide, in 2012[52] (Hokkaido Chapter) and 2014 (Hokkaido and Tohoku Chapters).[53] He has also published academic papers in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus[54] and other peer-reviewed journals in the interdisciplinary field of Asia-Pacific Studies, and has contributed chapters to academic books published by Akashi Shoten (Tokyo)[55] and Springer.[56]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Arudou, Debito. "Holiday Tangent: My Schofill family roots include Cherokee and lots of American South skeletons". Debito.org. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Arudou, Debito. "A Bit More Personal Background on Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle". Debito.org. Archived from the original on 2013-05-30. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  3. ↑ Brooke, James (2004-05-12). "LETTER FROM ASIA; Foreigners Try to Melt an Inhospitable Japanese　City". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  4. ↑ "Authors". Cornell Alumni Magazine Online (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Alumni Association) 107 (5). Mar–Apr 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-13. (Archive)
  5. ↑ Arudou, Debito (1997-09-27). "The Juuminhyou Mondai: What It Means to Be 'Legally Nonresident' in Our Country of Residence". Debito.org. Retrieved 2011-09-07. (Archive)
  6. ↑ Arudou, Debito. "Wife". Debito.org. Retrieved 2011-09-07. (Archive)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "French, Howard W. (2000-11-29). "Turning Japanese: It Takes More Than a Passport". The New York Times (Nanporo). Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ "" Hokkaido Information University. October 25, 2011. Retrieved on October 25, 2011.
  10. ↑ "". Editorial statement by The Japan Times, 07 February 2012
  11. ↑ "" East–West Center. Retrieved on March 6, 2015.
  12. ↑ "" Meiji Gakuin University Retrieved on 6 March, 2015
  13. ↑ Aldwinckle, David (1999-01-28). "Daughters". Voicenet.co.jp. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  14. ↑ Arudou, Debito (1998-09-14). "NATURALIZATION PART ONE: FIRST STEPS TO BECOMING A JAPANESE CITIZEN". Debito.org. Retrieved 2015-04-07.
  15. ↑ "Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate, as Required by Section 6039G". Federal Register. 2002-10-31. Retrieved 2015-04-07.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Webster, Timothy (Summer 2008). "Arudou v. Earth Cure: Judgment of November 11, 2002 Sapporo District Court" (PDF). Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal (University of Hawaii) 9 (297): 297–321.
  17. ↑ Arudou, Debito (1999-08-24). "What's in my Name? Japanese Naturalization Update". Debito.org. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
  18. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2006-12-02). "How to Get a Divorce in Japan". Debito.org. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Webster, Timothy (Fall 2008). "Reconstituting Japanese Law: International Norms and Domestic Litigation". Michigan Journal of International Law (University of Michigan Law School) 30 (1). Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  20. ↑ Arudou 2004, pp. 14–29.
  21. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2006). Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten Inc. pp. 9–276. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  22. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2004). Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (1st edition ed.). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, Inc. p. 23. ISBN 4-7503-2005-6.
  23. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2006). Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, Inc. pp. 272–276. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
  24. ↑ "THE WORLD; Japanese Court Ruling Favors Foreigners; Bathhouse must pay three men who were denied entry." Los Angeles Times. November 12, 2002.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Newswire (2005-04-07). "City Off the Hook for Bathhouse Barring of Foreigners". The Japan Times (Tokyo). Retrieved 2011-08-21. 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."
  26. ↑ Kyodo (2004-09-16). "Court says city not remiss for letting bathhouse bar foreigners". Japan Economic Newswire (Sapporo).
  27. ↑ Biggs, Stuart; Kanoko Matsuyama (2007-02-07). "Japan Store Withdraws `Foreigner Crime File' Magazine". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  28. ↑ Ryall, Julian (2007-02-07). "JAPAN: Magazine's focus on crimes by foreigners sparks outrage". South China Morning Post (Tokyo). Retrieved 2014-11-11.
  29. ↑ Arudou, Debito (March 20, 2007). "Gaijin Hanzai Magazine and hate speech in Japan.". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
  30. ↑ Matsubara, Hiroshi (2003-02-23). "Foreigners seek same rights as seal". The Japan Times (Tokyo). Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  31. ↑ Chapman, David (2007). Zainichi Korean Identity and Ethnicity 17. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-42637-5.
  32. ↑ Asahi Shinbun, 22 February 2003
  33. ↑ Kyodo (2008-06-26). "G8 Summit 2008: Police questioning 'discriminatory'". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  34. ↑ STV News. June 25, 2008.
  35. ↑ Houpt, Simon (2009-08-21). "Dispatches from the World of Media and Advertising". The Globe and Mail (Canada). pp. B4.
  36. ↑ Yang, Jeff (2009-09-02). "McRacism in Japan?". San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco). Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  37. ↑ Masters, Coco (2009-08-25). "Not Everyone Is Lovin' Japan's New McDonald's Mascot". Time Magazine (Tokyo). Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  38. ↑ Struck, Doug (2003-07-04). "In Japan, U.S. Expat Fights the Yankee Way". Washington Post (Sapporo). Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  39. ↑ Murphy, Paul (2002-11-23). "Profile: Crusader of Sapporo shrugs off threats in defiant push for change". The International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun. p. 33. Retrieved 2014-09-14.
  40. ↑ Anchor: Robert Siegel, Reporter: Eric Weiner (2003-07-03). "Naturalized Japanese citizen David Aldwinckle". All Things Consideredhttp://www.lexisnexis.com |transcripturl= missing title (help). National Public Radio. All Things Considered.
  41. ↑ Lev, Michael A. (2003-05-08). "Crusader-Citizen Takes on Japan". Chicago Tribune (Sapporo). Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  42. ↑ McNicol, Tony (2005-10-25). "Japan sees beginning of change: Tony McNicol talks to 'Dogs & Demons' author Alex Kerr". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 2009-06-16. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Arudou, Debito (2013). "Japanese Only 10th Anniversary Edition". Akashi Shoten Inc. Retrieved 2014-08-07..
  44. ↑ "JPRI’S RECOMMENDED LIBRARY ON JAPAN". Japan Policy Research Institute. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  45. ↑ Richie, Donald (2008-04-20). "Helping newcomers settle in Japan". The Japan Times (Tokyo). Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  46. ↑ "Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan, Second Edition". Akashi Shoten Inc. 2013. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
  47. ↑ "Writer: Debito Arudou". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  48. ↑ ". Japan Today columns archive, accessed 21 August 2014
  49. ↑ Aldwinckle, David (July 7, 1996). "Intransigence bad for your health". Asahi Evening News. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  50. ↑ Aldwinckle, David (April 27, 1997). "Dodger catch Nomo pitches no morals". Asahi Evening News. p. 6. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
  51. ↑ Kosaka, Kris (2011-07-31). "Literary sludge insults child abduction issue". The Japan Times (Tokyo). Retrieved 2011-08-15. (Archive)
  52. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2012). "Fodor's Japan Travel Guide". Random House Inc. pp. 5, 764, 876. Retrieved 2014-08-20..
  53. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2014). "Fodor's Japan Travel Guide". Random House Inc. pp. 5, 712, 758. Retrieved 2014-08-20..
  54. ↑ Arudou, Debito. "JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hotspring Case and Discrimination Against "Foreigners" in Japan". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  55. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2005). "『外国人』入店禁止という人種差別" [Banning "Foreigners" Entry is Racial Discrimination]. In Okamoto, Masaktaka. 日本の民 族差別 人種差別撤廃条約からみた課題 [Racial Discrimination in Japan: Issues Seen From the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten. pp. 218–229. ISBN 978-4750321394.
  56. ↑ Arudou, Debito (2012). "An introduction to Japanese society’s attitudes towards race and skin color". In Hall, Ronald E. The Melanin Millennium: Skin Color as the 21st Century International Discourse. Springer. pp. 49–70. ISBN 978-9400746077.

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