Marutei Tsurunen

Marutei Tsurunen ( Japanese 弦 念 丸 呈 , Tsurunen Marutei , mostly in Katakana ツ ル ネ ン マ ル テ イ ; * April 30, 1940 in North Karelia , Finland as Martti Turunen ) is a Japanese politician. From 2002 to 2013 he was a member of the Sangiin , the upper house, for the Democratic Party (DPJ). He was the first Japanese of western descent in the Japanese parliament .

Life

Tsurunen came to Japan in 1967 as a Lutheran missionary. In 1974 he left the missionary service and worked in an Eikaiwa school and as a translator. He received Japanese citizenship in 1979.

His political career began in 1992 when he was in the council of Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture was selected. After three years, he stepped down to run in the 1995 Sangiin election for Kanagawa (three seats per election) as an independent. With around 340,000 votes, it received the fourth-highest percentage of votes. In the 1998 Sangiin election , Tsurunen ran again, received over half a million votes and fell short of third place by almost 10,000 votes. Then tried Tsurunen - now as a candidate of the DPJ - for a mandate in the Shūgiin , the lower house: 2000 he was clearly defeated in the 17th constituency of Kanagawa Yōhei Kōno ( LDP ).

In the 2001 Sangiin election , he ran on the DPJ's proportional representation list, but received only around 160,000 of the newly introduced preferential votes and thus the ninth-highest percentage of votes on the DPJ list. The DPJ was only entitled to eight proportional representation. It was not until 2002, when the DPJ MPs Kyosen Ōhashi resigned, he succeeded as substitutes jump into Parliament. In the 2007 election of the DPJ , Tsurunen received almost a quarter of a million preferential votes - sixth among the DPJ list candidates - and was re-elected for another six years.

At Sangiin, he was a member of the Environment Committee and the Okinawa and Northern Territories Committee. In the 2007 DPJ shadow cabinet, Tsurunen was designated as State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment. In 2010 he became chairman of the Sangiin Special Committee on Civil Protection.

In the 2013 Sangiin election , Tsurunen received 82,858 preferential votes, number 12 on the Democratic Party's list, and thus lost his seat as the Democrats were only entitled to seven proportional representation.

Works

• Aoi me no giin ga yuku ( 青 い 目 の 議員 が ゆ く ). Haru Shobō, Tokyo 1993, ISBN 4-938133-43-1 .
• Nihonjin ni naritai ( 日本人 に な り た い ). Shōdensha, Tokyo 1993, ISBN 4-396-10340-9 .
• Aoi me no kokkai giin imada tanjōsezu ( 青 い 目 の 国会 議員 い ま だ 誕生 せ ず ). Benesse Corporation, Tama 1995, ISBN 4-8288-1754-9 .
• Nihonjin Tsurunen Marutei ( 日本人 ツ ル ネ ン マ ル テ イ ). Mionshin Shuppan, Tokyo 1999, ISBN 4-88701-845-2 (together with Takashi Katō).
• "Nekasekiri rōjin" o tsukuru koku Nihon tsukuranai koku Hoku-Ō ( 「寝 か せ き り 老人」 を つ く る 国 日本 つ つ く ら な い 国 北欧 ). Asunaro Shobō, Tokyo 1999, ISBN 4-7515-2043-1 (together with Hiroyuki Seki and Mitsugi Yoshida).
• Daijōbu! ( 大丈夫! ). Ishizue, Tokyo 2001, ISBN 4-900747-28-9 .
• Sō da, kokkai giin ni narou ( そ う だ 、 国会 議員 に な ろ う ). Chūkei Shuppan, Tokyo 2003, ISBN 4-8061-1808-7 .
• Mirai e no sentaku ( 未来 へ の 選 択 ). Aibun Shorin, Tokyo 2004.
• Nihon ichi wakari yasui "Nihon" ( 日本 一 わ か り や す い 『日本』 ). Asuka Shuppansha, Tokyo 2004, ISBN 4-7569-0788-1 .
• Tsurunen no hito to chikyū no ecolife ( ツ ル ネ ン の 人 と 地球 の エ コ ラ イ フ ). Hara Shobō, Tokyo 2008, ISBN 978-4-562-04150-3 .
• Shizen ni shitagau ikikata to nōhō Luomu ( 自然 に 従 う 生 き 方 と 農 法 ル オ ム ). Ebisukōshō Shuppan, Tokyo 2009, ISBN 978-4-86403-008-3 (together with Shigeru Ishii).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.senkyo.janjan.jp/election/1995/99/001998/00001998_9388.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ http://www.senkyo.janjan.jp/election/2000/99/001580/00001580_5574.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated June 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Yomiuri Shimbun , Sangiin election results 2013, [nationwide] proportional representation: Democratic Party ( memento of the original from July 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 23, 2013) 

Web links

• Official website (Japanese, English)
• Sangiin: Member Profile ( Japanese , English )