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Debito Arudou

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Arudou Debito

Debito Arudou (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.[1] 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. Aldwinckle then taught English in Sapporo, Hokkaido, for one year, but "swore against ever being a language teacher again, plunging instead into business."[1] After returning to the United States to enter the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego, Aldwinckle took a year off from this program in 1989 to return to Japan, whereupon he married, 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). Aldwinckle was awarded 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 [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." [1] Claiming to be the object of racial harrassment,[2] Aldwinckle eventually quit the company. In 1993, he returned to teach 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:

[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).[1]

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.[3]

Otaru onsen lawsuit

The problematic sign

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 receiving reports of exclusion in 1998[citation needed] and 1999, Arudou visited Yunohana, along with a small group of Japanese, Caucasian and East Asian friends, and discovered that only visibly non-Japanese people were excluded.[4]

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.[citation needed]

Arudou and two co-plaintiffs, Kenneth Lee Sutherland and Olaf Karthaus, then sued. 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.[5] The plaintiffs also attempted to claim against the city of Otaru for failing to create an anti-discrimination ordinance, but this claim was dismissed as without merit.[6] These rulings were upheld by the Sapporo High Court on September 16, 2004 [7] and the Supreme Court of Japan denied review on April 7, 2005[6]

Current activities

Arudou is currently planning a multi-party lawsuit against the Japanese Government for allegedly failing to protect the human rights of foreigners.[8]

In 2006, Arudou spoke on racial discrimination issues in Japan at the University of British Columbia in Canada, as well as in several places in the United States, including the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Columbia University Law School, New York University Law School, Amherst College, Massachusetts, and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

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."[9]
  • "Japan is not an outlier in terms of racism, but it is in terms of protections against it."[9]
  • "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."[10]
  • "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."[3]

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 4-7503-2005-6), 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.[11]

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-ordinate efforts. Such friction contributed to a split with some of his initial supporters in the BENCI project. Others have criticized his alleged thirst for personal publicity, a claim which he has repeatedly denied.[12]

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), criticize such tactics as "too combative," is doubtful "whether in the long run it really helps," noting that "in Japan...[the combative] approach fails." Acknowledging that "gaijin and their gaijin ways are now part of the fabric of Japan's new society," Kerr also notes that Arudou's activities may "confirm conservative Japanese in their belief that gaijin are difficult to deal with."[13] Such sentiments are further expressed on Japan-related internet chat fora: that "Arudou's tactics may lead to an eventual backlash against foreigners, rather than expand their rights."[14]

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 website[10] 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.[15] Responding to numerous allegations[16]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.”[3]

Indeed, 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, Akita International University Vice-President, view the lawsuit as the product of "ultrasensitivity" and "Western moralizing."[17] Other critics, such as Robert Neff, recognized hot spring (onsen) 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 "faux" and ironically divisive.[18]

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.[9][10] 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."[19] 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.[20]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Debito Arudou, "A Bit More Personal Background on Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle," Debito.Org Cite error: The named reference "Background" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ a b c Debito Arudou, "How to Lose Your American Passport," Debito.Org, January 10, 2003. Cite error: The named reference "American_Passport" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ Dave Aldwinckle, "The Trip to 'Gaijin-Okotowari' Onsen," Debito.Org, September 19, 1999.
  5. ^ Debito Arudou,"The Otaru Lawsuit Decision and its Possible Effects," Debito.Org, November 12, 2002.
  6. ^ a b 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).
  7. ^ Debito Arudou, "Preliminary Report on the Otaru Onsens Lawsuit: Sapporo High Court Decision," Debito.Org, September 16, 2004.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b c Interview with Debito Arudou, JapanReview.Net, November 17, 2001. Cite error: The named reference "Interview" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c Debito Arudou, "The Rogues' Gallery: Photos of Places in Japan which Exclude or Restrict non-Japanese Customers," Debito.Org. Cite error: The named reference "Rogues" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Debito Arudou/Dave Aldwinckle's Publications," Debito.Org
  12. ^ Yuki Allyson Honjo, "The Dave and Tony Show," Book Reviews, JapanReview.Net, January, 2005.
  13. ^ Tony McNicol,"Japan Sees Beginning of Change: Tony McNicol Talks to Dogs and Demons author Alex Kerr,"The Japan Times Online, October 25, 2005.
  14. ^ Patrick Rial, "Debito Arudou: Evangelic Activist or Devlish Demonstrator?", Zapanzine, December 2005.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ Arudou alleges that “the US does not like people giving up their citizenship—for taxation purposes,” charging the US with unusual taxation measures shared only by Eritrea. According to Arudou’s allegations, the wealthy, labeled as “yacht people,” must pay an “exit tax” in order to renounce US citizenship, thereby avoiding being double taxed to suit U.S. government aims. Arudou cites an unrelated article as evidence. William Booth, “A Look at…the U.S. Citizenship Test: Learning, and Earning Their Stripes; the 100 Questions that Open the Door to America,” the Washington Post, November 17, 1996, pg. C3. However, in actual fact, no mention of “yacht people,” an “exit tax,” US tax policy, or the government’s allegedly “Eritrean” tax system is made in the article. In a separate claim, Arudou alleges that a U.S. diplomat, during a private telephone conversation, intimated his intention to reveal Arudou’s passport status to Japanese officials. The diplomat denies the allegation. Arudou also alleges that the U.S. government “coerced” him into relinquishing his U.S. passport at the US Consulate General Sapporo. However, Arudou acknowledges that this latter allegation was only a “feeling.” See Debito Arudou, "How to Lose Your American Passport," Debito.Org, January 10, 2003.
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ Interview with Robert C. Neff, JapanReview.Net, January 31, 2005.
  19. ^ Peter Tasker, "Opportunism Trivializes Real Discrimination," Letters, JapanReview.Net, June 2005.
  20. ^ Alexander Kinmont, "UN CERD and Representative Government: Sense or Nonsense?," Letters, JapanReview.Net, June 2005.
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