{"id":2,"date":"2006-05-30T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2006-05-30T02:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2016-12-21T10:29:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T20:29:04","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"What’s Debito.org?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We ought not to be ashamed of applauding the truth, nor appropriating the truth from whatever source it may come, even if it be from remote races and nations alien to us.”<\/strong><\/em> — al-Kindi<\/a>, 9th-Century Arab philosopher. \u00a0From Francis Wheen, “How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World”, pg. 307.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This website is about life in Japan from the viewpoint of one American-born writer residing in Sapporo, Japan, both before and after he became a naturalized Japanese citizen. It may interest people who want to know more about Japan, and how it affects residents who have the appearance and\/or status of non-Japanese.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who am I?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"My name is Dr. Arudou Debito (in Kanji \"\"), formerly David Christopher <\/span>Aldwinckle<\/span><\/a>, born 1965 in the United States, <\/span>Permanent Resident<\/span><\/a> of Japan from 1996, and <\/span>naturalized Japanese citizen<\/span><\/a> from 2000. Father of two with a Japanese woman and employed for eighteen-plus years as a tenured associate professor at a university in Hokkaido, I bought land and built a house out in the countryside in 1997, which was <\/span>the main reason<\/span><\/a> I took Japanese citizenship.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is this site for?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

This site gets around 60,000\u00a0page views and 5000 individual visits on average per day, and many people have emailed to ask what I seek to accomplish with it. It started out quite simply: I like to write, and have over time put out hundreds of essays over internet mailing lists. I felt some essays were worth archiving on a personal website, so on March 15,\u00a01996 I put up a couple hundred. However, as I got involved in social issues I thought deserved wider attention, the reports I wrote got archived as well. You can find many of those (updated daily) on my BLOG<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is this BLOG for?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

At the risk of sounding pretentious, let me quote a famous philosopher: \u00a0“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. \u00a0Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without direction from another. \u00a0This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolve and courage to use it without another’s guidance. <\/strong><\/em> Sapere aude!<\/strong> Dare to know! \u00a0That’s the motto of Enlightenment.”<\/strong><\/em> (Immanuel Kant, from “Critique of Pure Reason”, as cited in Francis Wheen, “How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World”, page 2). <\/span><\/p>\n

The point is, by blogging this information on a daily basis (which some people say can find depressing), we are daring to know and inform ourselves of the condition of human rights in Japan. \u00a0It necessarily means we hear the bad news before the good news, become aware of how to convert bad into good, and celebrate the small but hard-won and incremental victories over time. \u00a0For this field, that is the process of Enlightenment. \u00a0Still, if you just want to see the good news, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0with well over 5000 essays, articles, <\/span>publications<\/span><\/a>, and reference materials floating around this domain name, this site has two categories:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

WEBSITE: For <\/strong><\/span>Longer-Term Residents<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of Japan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Japan has a standard of living high enough to convince some people to stay permanently. Some steps I have made and recorded might be of reference to those people. Information on topics such as Permanent Residency, Naturalization, Housebuilding, Employment, Education etc are mixed in with other, hopefully amusing and poignant, anecdotes on travails of life in this fascinating country. <\/span>Click here to have a look<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of particular interest:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n