Who is Arudou Debito, anyway? You might remember his name from his lawsuit against the Yunohana onsen in Otaru, Hokkaido. He and his friends won the lawsuit, and the onsen is doing a brisk business due to the publicity generated by the lawsuit, so that the suit had a win-win outcome. You might recall his name from his columns in The Japan Times on subjects ranging from police gaijin carding to Asashoryu. Or you might have stumbled across his name during a Google search on how to become a Japanese citizen (he did, in 2000) or how to build a house in Japan.

Debito and co-author Akira Higuchi have collected that information and more in Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan, published by Akashi Shoten Inc., Japan's largest human-rights publisher. The book, on sale from 15 March 2008, is a compendium of information on how you can make your life in Japan easier, your job and visa more stable, your legal rights better protected, and your future as an investor and a contributor to Japanese society more rewarding. Written in both English and furigana Japanese, this book is geared to scratching your socio-economic itches. Information provided by the Japanese government for helping non-Japanese residents settle down is often inadequate. The mandarins too often see gaijin as temporary visitors rather than taxpaying residents.  Handbook ... is a long overdue reference on how you can stay longer in Japan, and even become a permanent resident.

Since 1993, Debito has been a faculty member at Hokkaido Information University, where he teaches business English and debate. He was born in California, grew up in upstate New York, and has earned a B.A. from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and an M.A. from the University of California, San Diego. He has lived in Sapporo for nearly 20 years.  Handbook ... is his third book with Akashi Shoten.  Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (in both English and Japanese) were the first two.

Your ticket for admission to Arudou Debito's BookNotes presentation will be a copy of Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan (Akashi Shoten, 2008), bought from Good Day Books. Paperback copies of Handbook ... are available from Good Day Books for yen (¥) each, tax included.