Marutei Tsurunen
弦念丸呈
Director of Democratic party Japan-South Korea relations department
In office
2003–2016
Member of the House of Councillors
In office
8 February 2002 – 28 July 2013
Ranking member of House of Councillors Natural disasters committee
In office
2002–2013
Member of Yugawara Town Council
In office
1992–1995
Personal details
Born
Martti Turunen

(1940-04-30) 30 April 1940
Lieksa, Finland
NationalityJapanese
Political partyDemocratic

Marutei Tsurunen (Japanese: ツルネン・マルテイ or 弦念 丸呈, Hepburn: Tsurunen Marutei, born 30 April 1940) is a Finnish-born Japanese politician. He is the first foreign-born Japanese of European origin to serve as a member of the Diet of Japan.[1] He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, where he served as Director General of the International Department. He served in the House of Councillors from 2001 to 2013.[2]

Biography

Tsurunen was born Martti Turunen in the village of Höntönvaara in Lieksa, Finland, and grew up in nearby Jaakonvaara.[3] Near the end of the Continuation War, Tsurunen (then four years old) and his family were among the few survivors of a Soviet partisan attack on the village.[4]

In 1967, at the age of 27, Tsurunen traveled to Japan as a lay missionary of the Lutheran Church, accompanied by his first wife, who was also a Finn; they later divorced.[5] Having decided to become Japanese, he gained his Japanese citizenship in 1979.[6] He moved to Yugawaramachi in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1981.

Political career

He first ran for city council in 1992 in Yugawaramachi and won a seat, coming in fourth place with 1,051 votes.[7]

He ran for a seat in the Upper House for Kanagawa without party backing in 1995. He received 339,484 votes, coming in fourth (the top three candidates were elected), losing a seat to the Socialist candidate who won 371,889 votes. He ran again in 1998 and took 502,712, just 8,000 short of winning a seat, telling voters "Please vote for me and send the first Japanese citizen with blue eyes to the upper house" and "Let's change Japan from an economic power into a citizen-friendly nation, where you don't need to worry about old age and pollution". He also proposed "sexual quotas for legislative bodies, so that from 40% to 60% of parliament and local assemblies would be female".[8] In 2000, he ran as a candidate of the Democratic Party of Japan for a seat in the Lower House, and again in 2001 for a seat in the Upper House, both unsuccessfully. In 2001, he garnered 159,920 votes, 14,036 short of what he needed to win a seat.[9] However, in 2002, an incumbent, Kyosen Ohashi, resigned from the house and he won a seat by "kuriage" replacement, by which he took the seat because he had the largest number of votes after the winner.[10][11]

He was directly reelected in 2007 with 242,742 votes, the 6th-highest in his party, but lost his seat in the 2013 election after garnering only 82,858 votes (finishing in 12th place).[2]

Family

Tsurunen is married to Sachiko Tanaka, and they have two children. He also had three children with his Finnish wife.[12]

In the media

Finnish media personality Markus Kajo interviewed Tsurunen in Finnish for the third episode of the documentary series Nousevan auringon Kajo in 2006.[13]

Tsurunen published his autobiography Sinisilmäinen samurai ("The blue-eyed samurai") in 2015 via Gummerus.[12]

See also

  • List of naturalized Japanese politicians

References

  1. ↑ Shōkei Arai (新井将敬, 1948–1998) was Japan's first naturalized parliamentarian, but he was born in Osaka and gave up his Korean citizenship at age 16.
  2. 1 2 "Ol' blue eyes isn't back: Tsurunen's tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ – The Japan Times". The Japan Times.
  3. ↑ Viljakainen, Miika (21 October 2019). "Martti Turunen lähti lähetystyöhön Japaniin 52 vuotta sitten – pian eteen tuli kipeä päätös, joka muutti elämän nimeä myöten" [Martti Turunen left for Japan as a missionary 52 years ago – soon he faced a painful decision that changed his life and his name] (in Finnish). Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  4. ↑ Brooke, James (8 March 2002). "Yugawaramachi Journal; Japan's New Insider Speaks Up for the Outsiders". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "Japan Zone (2008). Tsurunen Marutei".
  6. ↑ Strom, Stephanie (12 July 1998). "Foreign, Yet Japanese, and Aiming for Parliament". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  7. ↑ Hiroto Nakata, "Tsurunen disappointed by fourth loss at polls", Japan Times, 31 July 2001
  8. ↑ Todd Crowell and Murakami Mutsuko, "Are voters ready for a change?", Asia Week, 10 July 1998
  9. ↑ "First Westerner headed for Diet", Japan Times, 30 January 2002
  10. ↑ Jun Saito, "Nice finish for Tsurunen", The Asahi Shimbun, 30 January 2002
  11. ↑ Tony Laszlo, "Former Finn goes to the Diet", Japan Times, 8 March 2002
  12. 1 2 Lempinen, Marko (7 August 2021). "Pielisjärveltä lähtenyt "sinisilmäinen samurai" sai ansiomitalin Japanin keisarilta – Marutei Tsurunen ei osaa vieläkään selittää, miksi jätti Suomen". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  13. ↑ "Markus Kajo nousevan auringon maassa". Yle (in Finnish). 10 May 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
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