Marutei Tsurunen

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]

The native form of this personal name is Tsurunen Marutei. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

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

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. "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. 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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