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, a naturalized Japanese citizen, is a teacher, author and controversial activist.

Contents

Background

Early life

Japanese naturalization

Otaru onsen lawsuit

Current activities

Gaijin hanzai ura file

Quotes

Publications

Criticism

Notes

Reference links

Background

Early life

Arudou was born 'David Christopher Aldwinckle' in California in 1965.Debito Arudou, "A Bit More Personal Background on Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle," ''Debito.Org'' He attended Cornell University, first visiting Japan as a tourist on invitation from his pen pal (and future wife) for several weeks in 1986. Following this experience, he dedicated his senior year as an undergraduate to study the Japanese language, graduating in 1987.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: . Retrieved on 2006-12-13. Aldwinckle then taught English in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, for one year, but "swore against ever being a language teacher again, plunging instead into business."Ibid 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 a Japanese national in 1989, spending 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 was awarded the degree in 1991.A brief biographical sketch of Aldwinckle and other 1991 UCSD IR/PS alumni is available at the official university website. See: . Retrieved on 2006-12-13.
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 [in 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."Ibid. Claiming to be the object of racial harassment,^[1] Aldwinckle eventually quit the company. In 1993, despite his previous pledge “against ever being a language teacher again,”Ibid Aldwinckle 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. He is currently 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 ''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 '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.Debito Arudou, “What’s in my Name? Japanese Naturalization Update,” ''Debito.Org'', August 24, 1999. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. He gave the following amongst the reasons for naturalization:

[To] 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).Ibid

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 below). Following the incident, Arudou chose to renounce his U.S. citizenship.Debito Arudou, "How to Lose Your American Passport," ''Debito.Org'', January 10, 2003.
Following a divorceDebito Arudou, “Debito.org Special Edition Newsletter: How to Get a Divorce in Japan,”, December 2, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-14. from his wife in September 2006, 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.Debito Arudou, “Debito.org Newsletter: Bianchi, Johnston, Immigration, & losing my name,” December 14, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.

Otaru onsen lawsuit

Arudou was one of three plaintiffs in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Yunohana Onsen in Otaru, Hokkaido. Yunohana maintained a policy to exclude non-Japanese patrons, which the business claimed to implement after Russian sailors allegedly 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,Debito Arudou, ''Japanese Only — The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan'', (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2004), pp. 14–29. Arudou visited the hot spring (''onsen''), along with a small group of Japanese, Caucasian and East Asian friends, in order to confirm that only visibly non-Japanese people were excluded.^[2]
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 a Japanese national, 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.^[3]
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 in damages. The court stated that "refusing all foreigners without exception is 'unrational discrimination' [that] 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 legal precedent towards racial discrimination in Japan.^[4] Arudou's claim against the city of Otaru for failing to create an anti-discrimination ordinance was dismissed as without merit.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. These rulings were upheld by the Sapporo High Court on September 16, 2004^[5] and the Supreme Court of Japan denied review on April 7, 2005.text

Current activities

Arudou is currently planning a multi-party lawsuit against the Japanese Government for allegedly failing to protect the human rights of foreigners.^[6]

Gaijin hanzai ura file

Main articles: Gaijin hanzai ura file

In February 2007, Arudou commented on ''Gaijin hanzai ura file'' ''(Secret Foreigner Crime Files)'' a mook (magazine/book) published by Eichi Suppan on January 31. The mook contains images and descriptions of what the magazine says are crimes committed in Japan by non-Japanese, including graphs breaking down crimes by nationality. The magazine includes a caption describing a black man as a "nigga", an article entitled "Chase the Iranian!" and calls Tokyo a "city torn apart by evil foreigners."^[7] Arudou posted a bilingual letter for readers to take to FamilyMart stores protesting against "discriminatory statements and images about non-Japanese residents of Japan."
Japan Store Withdraws `Foreigner Crime File' Magazine Stuart Biggs and Kanoko Matsuyama

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."Interview with Debito Arudou, ''JapanReview.Net'', November 17, 2001.

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

★ "Starting from 1993 in Otaru, Hokkaidō, 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."Debito Arudou, "The Rogues' Gallery: Photos of Places in Japan which Exclude or Restrict non-Japanese Customers," ''Debito.Org.''

★ "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."Debito Arudou, "How to Lose Your American Passport."

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 Hokkaidō 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 4-7503-2005-6), 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.^[8]

Criticism

Arudou's tactics have been seen by some as unnecessarily confrontational with supporting research that is sometimes inadequately 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 (unconnected to Arudou's "Community in Japan" project) have criticized his apparent unwillingness to co-operate within a larger organization. Such friction contributed to a split with some of his initial supporters in the BENCI project.Anna Isozaki, "Narratives: a Matter of Perspective," Letters, ''JapanReview.Net'', June 2005. They have also criticized his alleged thirst for personal publicity, a claim which he has repeatedly denied.^[9]
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 0-8090-3943-5), criticized such tactics as "too combative," is doubtful "whether in the long run it really helps," noting that "in Japan… [the combative] approach fails." Acknowledging positively that "''gaijin'' and their ''gaijin'' ways are now part of the fabric of Japan's new society," Kerr also feared that Arudou's activities may "confirm conservative Japanese in their belief that ''gaijin'' are difficult to deal with."^[10] On 7 April 2007, Arudou publicly criticized Kerr’s comments on his personal blog and mass e-mail newsletter lists. Following Arudou's public criticisms, Kerr responded in an open e-mail posted by Arudou elaborating on his initial impressions of Arudou’s tactics, his current impressions of Arudou’s newsletter and website, and Kerr’s own distinct techniques for being critical in the field of “traditional culture, tourism, city planning, and the environment” — “to speak quietly, from ‘within.’” Respecting Arudou's "undoubtedly combative" tactics, Kerr now concluded by stating: “I wholly support [Arudou’s] activities and [his] methods.”Debito Arudou, "Alex Kerr falls into 'Guestism' arguments with unresearched comments," Newsletter, ''Debito.org'', 7 April 2007. Retrieved on 8 April 2007
In terms of research, Arudou appears to forgo 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 websiteDebito Arudou, "The Rogues' Gallery." appears to have been collected in an ''ad hoc'' manner. 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.^[11] Responding to numerous allegations leveled at the US State Department in the Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA), Alec Wilczynski, Consul General, American Consulate General Sapporo, criticizes Arudou’s “antics,” “omissions” and “absurd statements” as part of a deliberate attempt “to revive interest in his flagging ‘human rights’ campaign.”see text
Some critics dispute Arudou's repeated statements that the Otaru Hot Spring case reflects a significant problem that requires immediate attention. Critics, such as Gregory Clark, Akita International University Vice-President, view the lawsuit as the product of "ultrasensitivity" and "Western moralizing."^[12] Other critics, such as Robert Neff, recognized authority and author of ''Japan's Hidden Hot Springs'' (ISBN 0-8048-1949-1), acknowledge the odd clash with an allegedly xenophobic hot spring proprietor, but ultimately views much of Arudou's campaign to be ironically divisive stating that "I think much of his campaign is faux because most of the places he is going after are in Hokkaido trying to protect themselves from drunken Russians. I have bathed and/or stayed at well over 200 onsen establishments and been stopped only once."Text
Some critics object to Arudou's attempt to evoke parallels between the institutionalized racial discrimination historically exhibited in South Africa, and the American segregated south with the alleged examples occasionally debated in Japan.Text 2See, for example, Note 11 in Quotes. Peter Tasker, author of numerous best-selling non-fiction and fiction works on Japan, argues that in "attempting to monster [Japan] into George Wallace's Alabama, [Arudou] trivializes the real-life brutal discrimination that still disfigures our world and the heroic campaigners who have put themselves on the line to fight it."Text Others question how a small and motley collection of allegedly discriminatory bath-houses, "soaplands," massage parlors, and nightclubs is representative of Japan's civil rights situation in any meaningful sense.^[13]

Notes

1. "After I nearly got sick and they started doing things that no Japanese superiors would ever do to their subordinates (like threatening to fire me for any minor infraction — even for coming to work in sneakers! — kicking me in public, and calling my wife and asking her out!), my wife gave me permission to leave the company." Ibid.
2. Dave Aldwinckle, "The Trip to 'Gaijin-Okotowari' Onsen," ''Debito.Org'', September 19, 1999.
3. Howard W. French "Turning Japanese: It Takes More Than a Passport" ''NYTimes.com'', November 29, 2000
4. Debito Arudou,"The Otaru Lawsuit Decision and its Possible Effects," ''Debito.Org'', November 12, 2002.
5. Debito Arudou, "Preliminary Report on the Otaru Onsen Lawsuit: Sapporo High Court Decision," ''Debito.Org'', September 16, 2004.
6. Kunibengodan ("National Lawsuit Legal Team"), "Statement on the Lawsuit Against Japan's National Government to be Filed in 2006 in Tokyo District Court When We Have Some More Plaintiffs on Board,"''Debito.Org'', January 24, 2006.
7.
Gaijin Hanzai File” pubs spectre of evil foreign crime Debito Arudou

8. "Debito Arudou/Dave Aldwinckle's Publications," ''Debito.Org''
9. Yuki Allyson Honjo, "The Dave and Tony Show," Book Reviews, ''JapanReview.Net'', January, 2005.
10. Tony McNicol,"Japan Sees Beginning of Change: Tony McNicol Talks to ''Dogs and Demons'' author Alex Kerr,"''The Japan Times Online'', October 25, 2005.
11. For a few such examples, see Debito Arudou, "Japan's Misguided 'Kokusaika'," ''Japan Today'', June 27, 2001; Debito Arudou, "JCLU Proposes Anti-Discrimination Law," ''Tokyo Professive'', May 21, 2003; Debito Arudou, "Japan, the tourist destination?," Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, May 23, 2003; and Debito Arudou, ''Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan'' (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, Inc), pg. 305. For a few articles that repeat the allegation, see Mark Magnier, "Japanese Court Ruling Favors Foreigners: Bathhouse Must Pay Three Men who Were Denied Entry. Decision is Called 'Significant' in a Nation that Tolerates Discrimination," Main News, ''Los Angeles Times'', November 12, 2002, pg. 3; and "Japanese Bathhouse to Pay 25,000 Dollars for Barring Foreigners," International News Section, ''Agence France Presse-English'', Tokyo November 11, 2002.
12. For two articles, see Gregory Clark,"Destroying a Fragile Trust," Opinon, ''The Japan Times Online,'' February 12, 2001; Gregory Clark, "Racist banner looks frayed," Opinion, ''The Japan Times Online,'' February 17, 2005
13. Alexander Kinmont, CERD and Representative Government: Sense or Nonsense?," Letters, ''JapanReview.Net'', June 2005.

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