Американец, ставший японцем: История Дебито Арудо

Author/activist with Japanese citizenship born in the USA

Debito Arudou (有道 出人) is an American born Japanese writer, blogger, and human rights activist. He was born in the United States and became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2000. Arudou has since left Japan after living in the country for over 20 years.

Arudou was born David Christopher Schofill in California in 1965. He was raised in Geneva, New York, and became "David Christopher Aldwinckle" when his stepfather adopted him in the 1970s. dedicating his senior year to studying Japanese after visiting his pen pal and future wife in Japan. Aldwinckle moved to Japan for one year where he taught English in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and later spent one year at the Japan Management Academy in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, before returning to complete a Master's of Pacific International Affairs (MPIA) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In 1993, Arudou joined the faculty of Business Administration and Information Science at the Hokkaido Information University, a private university in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, where he taught courses in business English and debate. He was an associate professor until 2011 when he left the university. From 2012 to 2013, Arudou was an Affiliate Scholar at the East–West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Meiji Gakuin University awarded him a Doctorate in Philosophy (International Studies) in 2014.

Aldwinckle married a Japanese citizen and they have two daughters. On becoming Japanese, he changed his name to Arudoudebito Sugawara (菅原 有道出人), taking his wife's surname.

Eric Weiner described Arudou as an "outspoken man that rejects the notion that there's one Japanese way of doing anything". Washington Post journalist Doug Struck described Arudou as "the Outraged Man, tilting at uncomfortable truths about Japanese racial discrimination"

Japanologist Alex Kerr has criticized Arudou for his "openly combative attitude", an approach that Kerr says usually "fails" in Japan and may reinforce the belief "that gaijin are difficult to deal with". John Spiri, associate professor at Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University, argues that Arudou's tactics are excessive, that he tends to perceive things as "black and white", and that he is "more interested in attacking Japan and its people than fighting stereotyping and injustice".

Arudou had a book published about the 1999 Otaru hot springs incident, originally in Japanese, and then in 2004 in an expanded English version, Japanese Only – The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (ジャパニーズ・オンリー―小樽温泉入浴拒否問題と人種差別). The book is listed in the Japan Policy Research Institute's recommended library on Japan. Arudou's next book, published in 2008, was coauthored with Akira Higuchi (樋口 彰) and titled Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants and Immigrants to Japan (ニューカマー定住ハンドブック). This bilingual book provides information on visas, starting businesses, securing jobs, resolving legal problems, and planning for the future from entry into Japan to death. Handbook came out in 2012 in an updated 2nd Edition and an ebook version in 2013. Arudou has written a monthly column for the Community section of The Japan Times titled "Just Be Cause" since 2008, and has contributed occasional opinion columns to the newspaper since 2002. He was also a columnist for the Japan Today website and has been featured in The Asahi Evening News. In 2011, Arudou self published his first novella titled In Appropriate: a novel of culture, kidnapping, and revenge in modern Japan. The novella tells the story of a transnational marriage, culture shock, and child abduction. In 2015 he published Embedded Racism: Japan's Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination through the Lexington Books imprint of Rowman & Littlefield. Arudou has published twice in Fodor's Japan Travel Guide, in 2012 (Hokkaido Chapter) and 2014 (Hokkaido and Tohoku Chapters). He has also published academic papers in The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus and other peer reviewed journals in the interdisciplinary field of Asia Pacific Studies, and has contributed chapters to academic books published by Akashi Shoten (Tokyo) and Springer.