{"id":11821,"date":"2013-08-10T15:41:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T01:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11821"},"modified":"2013-11-19T13:24:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T23:24:00","slug":"japan-times-just-be-cause-col-66-ol-blue-eyes-isnt-back-tsurunens-tale-offers-lessons-in-microcosm-for-dpj-aug-5-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11821","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 66: “Ol\u2019 blue eyes isn\u2019t back: Tsurunen\u2019s tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ”, Aug 5, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Thanks for making my article once again one of the top-read articles on the day of publication! \u00a0Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

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\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ol\u2019 blue eyes isn\u2019t back: Tsurunen\u2019s tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ<\/strong>
\n By ARUDOU Debito<\/strong>
\n JUST BE CAUSE COLUMN 66 FOR THE JAPAN TIMES COMMUNITY PAGE<\/strong>
\nAugust 6, 2013<\/strong>
\n Courtesy\u00a0http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2013\/08\/05\/issues\/ol-blue-eyes-isnt-back-tsurunens-tale-offers-lessons-in-microcosm-for-dpj\/<\/a><\/strong>
\nVersion with links to sources<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spare a thought for Marutei Tsurunen, Japan\u2019s first European-born naturalized immigrant parliamentarian. He was voted out in last month\u2019s House of Councilors election.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You might think I\u2019d call it tragic. No. It was a comeuppance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It needn\u2019t have turned out this way. Squeaking into a seat by default in 2001, Tsurunen was later reelected in 2007 with a reaffirming mandate of 242,740 proportional representation votes<\/a>, sixth in his party. Last month, however, he lost badly, coming in 12th with only 82,858<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For a man who could have demonstrated what immigrants (particularly our visible minorities) can do in Japan, it was an ignominious exit \u2014 so unremarkable that the Asahi Shimbun didn\u2019t even report it among 63 \u201cnoteworthy\u201d campaigns<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, Tsurunen offers lessons in microcosm for his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and on why Japan\u2019s left wing was so spectacularly trounced in the last two elections.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tsurunen became an MP partly because, as a Caucasian Newcomer, he offered protest voters something different (even visibly) from established expectations. But he wasn\u2019t a sphinx. He said he would speak up for outsiders, promote intercultural tolerance, and support laws banning discrimination in housing and employment (New York Times, Mar. 8, 2002<\/a>).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, mere months later he distanced himself from \u201cforeigner issues.\u201d In a 2002 interview<\/a>, he told me that his basic policy was to hitch his fortunes to the DPJ. Quote:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be cases, such as international problems, where\u2026 I will have to vote along party lines, even if it is at odds with my personal convictions\u2026 After all, if I don\u2019t follow party discipline, I will be expelled from the party. Then I won\u2019t be able to do my job. I will maintain my ability to say my own opinion, but at important times I will be a party man. That\u2019s how I stand.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not much of a stand. Yet as the DPJ\u2019s fortunes rose to become a viable ruling party, Tsurunen became more invisible<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where was Tsurunen (or his staff) when the United Nations visited the Diet on May 18, 2006<\/a>, presenting preliminary findings about racial discrimination in Japan?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the DPJ took power and began presenting significant proposals enfranchising outsiders, such as suffrage for Permanent Residents and anti-discrimination laws, where was Tsurunen when opposition debates became racialized and xenophobic<\/a>?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When bigoted politicians such as Shintaro Ishihara and Takeo Hiranuma began questioning the loyalty of Japanese with \u201cforeign ancestors\u201d (\u201cLast gasps of Japan\u2019s dying demagogues\u201d, JBC May 4, 2010<\/a>), why wasn\u2019t Tsurunen standing up for himself? After all, if not him, who? (The most vocal protests were from Mizuho Fukushima, the leader of a different party altogether<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not only did Tsurunen fail to influence the debate, he even relinquished control over his own public narrative and identity.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He famously gaijinized himself in the Japan Times (\u201cMind the gap, get over it: Japan Hands,\u201d Dec. 28, 2010<\/a>) by calling himself a \u201cforeigner,\u201d and telling people to accept and work with their fate as permanent outsiders.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite some public backpedaling and capitulation, Tsurunen\u2019s attitude never changed, and even after twelve years in office he never tried to transcend mere first impressions of being Japan\u2019s First Gaijin MP.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As proof, check out one of his pamphlets shortly before this election, where he even metaphorically offered to \u201cchange the color of his (blue) eyes\u201d (\u201cme\u201d no iro kaete, i.e., change his mind). Now that\u2019s what I call racialized pandering!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"tsurunenmarutei2013pamphletcrop\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See full pamphlet at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tsurunenmarutei2013pamphlet.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

So in the end, what was Tsurunen\u2019s agenda? Unclear, because he let others dictate it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As did the DPJ. And that\u2019s why they fell from power.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To give them some credit, Japan\u2019s politics has entrenched difficulties for newcomers. The DPJ inherited a system corrupted by decades of LDP rule and patronage, firmly nestling Japan in now more than two \u201clost decades\u201d of economic stagnation. Yet regime change was so inconceivable that the 2009 election had to popularize a new word in Japanese (seiken k\u014dtai) to reflect a new party coming to power.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The DPJ also had the bad luck of the March 11, 2011 disasters happening on their watch. Given how badly Japan\u2019s nuclear industry botched their job (plus refused to cooperate with the DPJ), this would spell doom for any party in power.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, here\u2019s where the DPJ is culpable:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

During its short time in power, the DPJ made some impressive policy proposals in very clear precedent-setting manifestos. The problem is that during the crucible of public debate, they didn\u2019t stand by them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The DPJ\u2019s first major sign of fragility was their policy cave-in vis-\u00e0-vis the US Government over American bases in Okinawa (JBC, \u201cFutenma is undermining Japanese democracy<\/a>\u201d, Jun. 1, 2010).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This eventually cost us our first DPJ prime minister, and gave glass jaws to future policy proposals sent into public policy brawls. Increased welfare services? Bogged down. Historical reconciliation with neighbors? Lame. Renewable energy? Nixed. Any other issues than border disputes? Weak.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually, the DPJ could neither control their party narrative nor or set the public agenda. By the time PM Noda took charge, the electorate and the media were somehow convinced that a gridlocked Diet (due to the LDP\u2019s machinations) was the DPJ\u2019s fault!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Allowing the LDP to set the agenda is particularly fatal in a society that fixates on brands (and the LDP is THE default political brand of Postwar Japan), and generally roots for winners rather than underdogs. (After all, if the media is constantly telling you that the DPJ is going to lose, why would you waste your vote on them?)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Contrast this with how clear the LDP has been about their intentions over the past year, even if it includes erasing Postwar democratic liberalism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This column argued last November (\u201cIf bully Ishihara wants one last stand, bring it on<\/a>\u201d) that Japan\u2019s Right should show their true colors, so the electorate could decide if they wanted a Diet of historical revisionists, bigots, and xenophobes. The debate was indeed in technicolor. And last December, with the DPJ\u2019s resounding electoral defeat, voters decided that xenophobia was okay with them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then this column argued last February (\u201cKeep Abe\u2019s hawks in check or Japan will suffer<\/a>\u201d) that if both Houses of Parliament went LDP in July, this would bring about radical constitutional revisions affecting civil liberties. Last month, voters apparently decided that was okay too. Thus a perfect storm of politics had completely routed Japan\u2019s Left.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But many Leftists still deserved to lose their position in the Diet because they were too timid or disorganized to carve a space for themselves in Japan\u2019s political narrative. We knew more about who they were not (the LDP), rather than who they were.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Similarly, Tsurunen will be remembered as a person with insufficient self-awareness of his role in Japanese politics. He openly called himself an \u201coutsider,\u201d then refused to fight for issues that concerned outsiders. Like Tsurunen, the DPJ ultimately accepted their fate as permanent outsiders.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So, barring an unlikely \u201cno-confidence\u201d vote, we have around three more years of LDP coalition rule. During this time in the political wilderness, Japan\u2019s Left had better learn the power of controlling their own narrative, and grasp the fact that the party in power should set the terms of debate on public policy. If they ever want to be insiders again, seize the agenda accordingly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

========================<\/p>\n

Debito Arudou\u2019s updated \u201cGuidebook for Relocation and Assimilation into Japan\u201d is now available as a downloadable e-book on Amazon. See www.debito.org\/handbook.html. Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community pages of the month. Send comments and ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp.<\/em>
\nENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan Times: Spare a thought for Marutei Tsurunen, Japan\u2019s first European-born naturalized immigrant parliamentarian. He was voted out in last month\u2019s House of Councilors election.<\/p>\n

You might think I\u2019d call it tragic. No. It was a comeuppance.<\/p>\n

It needn\u2019t have turned out this way. Squeaking into a seat by default in 2001, Tsurunen was later reelected in 2007 with a reaffirming mandate of 242,740 proportional representation votes, sixth in his party. Last month, however, he lost badly, coming in 12th with only 82,858.<\/p>\n

For a man who could have demonstrated what immigrants (particularly our visible minorities) can do in Japan, it was an ignominious exit \u2014 so unremarkable that the Asahi Shimbun didn\u2019t even report it among 63 \u201cnoteworthy\u201d campaigns.<\/p>\n

However, Tsurunen offers lessons in microcosm for his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and on why Japan\u2019s left wing was so spectacularly trounced in the last two elections\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,52,20,5,12,14,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-hate-speech","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-politics","category-nj-legacies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}