Arudou Debito

Arudou Debito (有道出人 Arudō Debito), a naturalized Japanese citizen born in the United States, is a teacher, author and controversial activist.

Background

Early life

Arudou was born David Christopher Aldwinckle in California in 1965. He attended Cornell University, and first visited Japan as a tourist on invitation from his pen pal (and future wife), for a few weeks in 1986. Following this experience, he spent his final year at Cornell studying the Japanese language. He then taught English in Sapporo for one year, but "swore against ever being a language teacher again, plunging instead into business." ^* He returned to the US and entered the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego. He took a year off from this program in 1989 to return to Japan, where he married and spent a year at the Japan Management Academy in Nagaoka. He then returned to California and completed his MS in 1991.

Aldwinckle then joined a small Japanese trading company in Sapporo. It was this experience, he recounts, that launched him on his "career" as the controversal 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 Japan 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." ^* Claiming to be a victim of racial harrassment, Aldwinckle eventually decided to quit the company. In 1993, he returned to teach English conversation at a private university in Sapporo, where he still teaches today.

Japanese naturalization

Aldwinckle became a permanent resident of Japan in 1996. He obtained Japanese citizenship in 2000, whereupon he changed his name to Arudou Debito, a kanji transliteration that, according to Arudou, has 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 Sugawara Arudou Debito. He gave the following amongst the reasons for naturalization:

^* me naturalization is just an obvious extension of what somebody in my position would desire anyway--the right to vote and to LEGALLY participate in society the same as any other citizen. I am already as entrenched as any other citizen: I have a house and land with a debt of a quarter-million dollars; with a thirty-year loan I really *cannot* leave Japan.

Moreover, naturalization has knock-on benefits that suit a person with my personality. It will enable me to stand on my rights (yes, more than I do now!) with renewed vigor--because I will indeed HAVE more rights, as well as a firmer ground to demand even more (I can except myself from, say, this "as a foreigner, you are a guest in our country so shut up" bullshit). And--dare I say it?--I would be able to participate in politics as a *candidate* if I so choose).

Arudou initially maintained dual nationality in violation of Japanese nationality law which requires those who naturalize to renounce their former citizenship. According to Arudou, in 2002 a U.S. consul in Sapporo threatened to divulge this information to the Japanese government following a disagreement with Arudou regarding his activist activities near Misawa Air Base. U.S. Consulate officials deny the allegation (see Criticism). Following the incident, Arudou chose to renounce his U.S. citizenship. ^*

Otaru onsen lawsuit

Arudou made headlines across Japan and the world as a plaintiff in a racial discrimination suit against the Yunohana Onsen in Otaru, Hokkaido. Yunohana had an official bar on non-Japanese patrons, which it claimed to have instituted after Russian sailors scared away patrons from one of its other facilities. After receiving several reports of exclusions in 1998 and 1999, Arudou visited Yunohana, along with a small group of Japanese, white and East Asian friends, and discovered 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; but the manager, although accepting that he was Japanese, refused him anyway on the grounds that his foreign appearance could cause existing Japanese customers to assume the onsen was admitting foreigners and take their business elsewhere. An investigation revealed that other similar cases had occurred at the same onsen, such as a case where a mixed-race family (who were nonetheless all Japanese citizens) had been split up, with only those whose appearance took after the Japanese side of the family being admitted.

Arudou and two of his friends, Kenneth Sutherland and Olaf Karthaus, then sued. On November 11, 2002, the Sapporo District Court ordered Yunohana to pay the plaintiffs 1 million JPY in damages. The court stated that "refusing all foreigners without exception is 'unrational discrimination' can be said to go beyond permissible societal limits." This made the ruling a lukewarm victory for the plaintiffs, as it did little to change discrimination law in Japan. September 16, 2004 ^*" target="_blank" >and the Supreme Court of Japan denied review on April 7, 2005 [http://www.debito.org/otarusupremecourt.html.

Current activities

Arudou is currently planning a multi-party lawsuit against the government of Japan for failing to protect the human rights of foreigners. ^*

Quotes

"Other people have called me a 'human rights' activist. I don't mind the label, but I don't think I'd go so far...I'm just an average guy with a bigger mouth than average." ^*

"Japan is not an outlier in terms of racism, but it is in terms of protections against it." ^*

"Starting from 1993 in Otaru, Hokkaido, and now running unchecked throughout Japan, signs saying 'Japanese Only' have gone up, making an unspoken undercurrent of fear of the outsider into clear, present, and brazen exclusionism--following the best traditions of segregation and apartheid." ^*

"Truth be told, having two passports in Japan is not necessarily a problem. If one lived a quiet life, one could conceivably keep renewing a non-Japanese passport ad infinitum. The USG permits dual citizenship and doesn't go out of its way to tell other governments about the nationalities of their citizens. However, as you know, I don't live a quiet life." ^*

Publications

Arudou has written a book about a particular incident of discrimination he faced, in which he went with his family and some friends to an onsen (hot spring) in the Hokkaido town of Otaru in 1999. The book was originally written in Japanese; the English version, Japanese Only—The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (ISBN 4-75-032005-6), was published in 2004 and revised in 2006.

Arudou has also written several textbooks on business English and debating in addition to many journalistic and academic articles. ^*

Criticism

Arudou's tactics have been seen by some as unnecessarily confrontational with supporting research that is sometimes poorly substantiated, spurious or exaggerated in its claims.

Some of his former colleagues who were initially active in the BENCI (Business Excluding Non-Japanese Customer Issho) project, a forerunner to Arudou's "Community in Japan" project, have criticized his apparent unwillingness to co-ordinate efforts. Such friction contributed to a split with his initial supporters in the BENCI project. Others have criticized his alleged thirst for personal publicity, a claim which he has repeatedly denied. ^*

Some critics question Arudou's brand of conflict resolution: the judicial system. Alex Kerr, author of the best-selling Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan (ISBN 0809039435), criticize such tactics as "too combative," is doubtful "whether in the long run it really helps," noting that "in Japan...combative approach fails." Others, notably journalist Patrick Rial, echo sentiments often expressed on Japan-related internet chat fora: that "Arudou's tactics may lead to an eventual backlash against foreigners, rather than expand their rights." [http://www.seekjapan.jp/page1.php?id=488　Arudou:

In terms of research, Arudou appears to forego systematic evidence to support the allegation that "Japanese Only" signs are "proliferating" nationwide, preferring to depend on anecdotal evidence. His "Rogue's Gallery" published on his personal website appears to have been collected in an ad hoc manner with few dates to support the claim of "proliferation." As of January 2006, the gallery contained 28 signs in 15 venues, a very small percentage of nationwide businesses that allegedly demonstrate discriminatory practices based on race. In a number of publications, Arudou claimed that "Japan happens to be the only OECD country without any form of domestic law against racial discrimination" without offering documented proof.

Some critics question Arudou's repeated claims that the Otaru Hot Spring case reflects a significant problem that requires immediate attention. Critics, such as Gregory Clark, former Tama University president and current Akita International University vice-president, view the lawsuit as the product of "ultrasensitivity" and "Western moralizing." Other critics, such as Robert Neff, recognized hot spring (onsen) authority and author of Japan's Hidden Hot Springs (ISBN 0804819491), acknowledge the odd clash with an allegedly xenophobic hot spring proprietor, but ultimately views much of Arudou's campaign to be "faux" and ironically divisive.[http://www.japanreview.net/interview_neff.htm

Some critics object to Arudou's choice of targets, asserting that far more pressing and pervasive discriminatory behavior exists in Japan. Such alleged problems include racial discrimination in apartment rentals, the granting of tenured academic positions in Japanese universities, and the right of foreign fathers to gain access to their children in the event of divorce.

Some critics object to Arudou's attempt to evoke parallels between the institutionalized racial discrimination historically exhibited in South Africa, Nazi Germany, and the American segregated south with the alleged examples occasionally debated in Japan. Peter Tasker, author of numerous best-selling non-fiction and fiction works on Japan, argues that in "attempting to monster into George Wallace's Alabama, ^* Others question how a small and motley collecton of allegedly discriminatory bath-houses, "soaplands," massage parlors, and nightclubs is representative of Japan's civil rights situation in any meaningful sense.

External links

Official Site

Reference links

Civil rights activists | American people in Japan | Living people

Debito Arudou | 有道出人 | 有道出人

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