DEBITO.ORG
Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's Home Page
«

Dietmember Tsurunen offers clarification and apology for calling himself a foreigner in Japan Times article

Posted by debito on January 18th, 2011

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatardebitopodcastthumb
UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
DEBITO.ORG PODCASTS now on iTunes, subscribe free

Hi Blog. In response to the feedback regarding his statements to the Japan Times last December 28, where in an article he calls himself a foreigner despite his Japanese citizenship, Dietmember Tsurunen Marutei sends this public statement through his office:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

from: ツルネン マルテイ事務室
date: Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 4:26 PM
subject: ツルネン事務所より

ツルネンマルテイの秘書の山本と申します。
先日はツルネンのインタビュー記事についてのご意見をいただき、ありがとうございました。

ご意見をいただいた件について、ツルネンから以下のような返事をことづかりました。

=====================================================================================
今回のご指摘、ありがたく受け止めます。
ご指摘の通り、私の発言した英単語「foreigner」は不適切な言葉であったと反省しています。
自分が「生まれながらの日本人」ではないことを表現するために「foreigner」と言いましたが、
厳密に表現するためには「foreign-born person」、または記事でも使用している
「finn-born Japanese」と表現すべきでした。
誤解を生む表現をしてしまったことを反省し、お詫び申し上げます。
=====================================================================================

なお、ツルネン事務所には毎日大変多くのご意見を頂戴します。
誠に残念ながら、それらすべてにツルネン本人がお返事することは時間的に難しい状況です。
秘書が代理でお返事することにご理解いただければ幸いです。

このたびは、貴重なご意見ありがとうございました。

参議院議員ツルネンマルテイ
秘書 山本綾子

****************************************
参議院議員 ツルネンマルテイ
秘書 山本綾子
Ayako Yamamoto
Secretary to Mr.Marutei Tsurunen,
Member, House of Councilors, Japan
Tel: +81-3-6550-0923
Fax: +81-3-6551-0923
E-mail: marutei_tsurunen01@sangiin.go.jp
****************************************

Pertinent section by Tsurunen translated by Arudou Debito (not an official translation):
============================
“I wish to thank everyone for their comments. As people have pointed out, my use of the English word ‘foreigner’ was inappropriate. I was trying to express that I am not a ‘Japan-born Japanese’ and used ‘foreigner’, but strictly speaking I should have said ‘foreign-born person’, or as I said in the article ‘Finn-born Japanese’.

“I regret using expressions that gave rise to misunderstandings, and I would like to offer my apologies.”
============================

ends

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 7:25 am and is filed under "Pinprick Protests", Good News, Immigration & Assimilation, Problematic Foreign Treatment, 日本語. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Dietmember Tsurunen offers clarification and apology for calling himself a foreigner in Japan Times article”

  1. Mumei Says:
    January 18th, 2011 at 9:46 am

    山本様、

    わざわざご連絡をありがとうございました。誤解という事でほっとしました。
    ですが、本人を「ツルネンマルテイ」と綴っていらっしゃいますが、「弦念丸呈」かと思っていました。
    善かれ悪しかれ、表記法によってイメージが違ってきます。
    言う迄もなく、片仮名表記はよく外国のものと理解される嫌いがあります。

  2. OG Steve Says:
    January 18th, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    Good Point Mumei :-)

    I thought the exact same thing. Why is 弦念丸呈’s secretary labeling her boss ツルネンマルテイ? I’ll bet that none of the other House of Councilors’ secretaries label their boss with Katakana.


    – Actually, Tsurunen-san has always run as a katakana candidate (just as some people run as hiragana candidates when their names are hard to read). This is basically a brand. Not one I personally would be happy being branded with (hypothetically, I would run under my kanji name or not at all), but those are some of the trade-offs made to get elected. As Kaoru says, it was his choice of identity and we’ll just have to respect that.

  3. Kaoru Says:
    January 18th, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    The name is written in katakana on his official website. For whatever reason, it appears to be his own choice and we should respect that.

Leave a Reply

«