Yugawaramachi Journal; Japan's New Insider Speaks Up for the Outsiders

The sound of the Pacific surf wafts up the hill, over the roofs of a Buddhist temple, through the terraced cemetery, and into the sunlit study of Japan's newest senator. But it is not enough to wash away memories of what he remembers as ''the shouting and shooting'' long ago in Finland.

Toward the end of World War II, when fathers were away in the army, Soviet guerrillas crossed the border and moved into the snowbound village of Jaakonvaara. The Russians killed all the mothers and children, sparing only the Turunen family because their house was behind a grove of trees.

Half a century later, the 4-year-old boy missed in the massacre is now a 61-year-old pacifist with an engaging smile and a seat in Japan's Parliament -- the first Western member of the legislature.

After arriving in Japan 35 years ago from Finland as a Lutheran lay missionary, Mr. Tsurunen divorced his Finnish wife and cast his lot with Japan. When he married a Japanese woman he discovered the barriers that existed at that time for foreigners trying to open bank accounts or rent property.

In 1979, he won Japanese citizenship after he surmounted major hurdles, including a 50-page essay in Japanese for immigration authorities, who also inspected his house to verify that he was living in a traditional Japanese way.

Complying with the law of the time, he ''Japanesed'' his name, changing Turunen to Tsurunen by adopting the word ''tsuru,'' or crane, drawing on a well-known folk tale about a rescued crane who displays gratitude to his savior.

On the national stage for the first time, this self-described ''blue-eyed Japanese'' wants to promote intercultural tolerance and laws banning discrimination in housing and employment.

''I always believed this was my duty, or mission, to serve Japan, so I didn't want to give up,'' Marutei Tsurunen said in an interview, recalling his four failed attempts to win election to the Parliament. In 1992, Mr. Tsurunen became the country's first Westerner to serve as a city assemblyman.

He was unexpectedly elevated to Parliament when a lawmaker from his opposition party, the Democratic Party, resigned his seat, making way for Mr. Tsurunen, the runner-up in last July's election.

A few days after he got the news, his house here was filled with congratulatory bouquets of flowers from supporters.

Many came from leaders of Japan's 600,000 ethnic Koreans, a group that Mr. Tsurunen has cultivated in recent years.

''After I lost last year, they said, 'Please try again and be sure to get there, you can be our national spokesman,' '' he said in accented English. ''If they want to rent a house, even in Tokyo, or get a job in a big firm, and they realize they are foreigners, they are very often rejected. There is a lot of discrimination in employment and in renting houses.''

In addition to pushing for antidiscrimination legislation, he wants to allow foreigners who are permanent residents to vote in local elections, something that has spread through Scandinavia in recent years.

Until five years ago, Mr. Tsurunen ran an English school in his two-story home here. Now he wants to ease the entry of foreign children into Japanese society through promotion and appreciation of foreign cultures and languages in schools where there are large minority populations of Brazilian, Peruvian, Korean and Chinese students.

The old school sign, still atop his roof, shows his personal vision: around a globe, bound together by the word ''ENGLISH,'' are seated a group of happy children: an African, a Japanese, an American and a Scandinavian.

In reality, Japan's pressure to conform can be crushing. The last Parliament member who was not ethnically Japanese was a Japanese citizen of Korean origin who presented himself to the public as Japanese. Facing arrest in 1998 on an insider trading charge, he committed suicide.

''He pretended to be Japanese,'' Mr. Tsurunen said. ''I can't hide. Everyone knows I am an ex-foreigner.''

Although studiously Japanese, down to his curt bow, Mr. Tsurunen, an avid recycler, let slip his slightly divided loyalties when shown a world ''sustainability index'' that ranked Japan in 62nd place, and Finland in first place. ''See,'' he exclaimed with a grin, ''we have a lot to learn from Finland on environment.''

In Parliament, he says he will bring ''an outsider's look to the inside.'' Last July, he openly campaigned to represent the 1.3 million foreigners living in Japan, about 1 percent of the population. With Japanese birthrates falling below replacement levels, the United Nations has estimated that Japan needs to import 600,000 workers a year to maintain its standard of living.

''Japanese are not ready to accept a lot of immigration, but after 10 to 20 years our population will go down,'' Mr. Tsurunen said. ''We will need a lot of workers here to keep businesses going.''

Although he says he has not received any recent harassment from Japan's nationalist right wing, he says he senses that with Japan's economic decline the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is becoming increasingly nationalistic.

Reflecting this mood, recent newspaper headlines include ''Keep Japan Safe From Illegals'' and ''Crimes by Foreign Gangsters Spreading to Local Areas.''

To Mr. Tsurunen, Japan's path to the future is through neutralism and dialogue. ''To support the American forces, I am opposed,'' he said, putting verbs at the end of sentences, Japanese style. ''To send our forces to help the refugees, the victims of the conflict, we must do that.''