Background
Tsurunen was born Martti Turunen in the village of Jaakonvaara in Lieksa, Finland.
ツルネン・マルテイ 弦念 丸呈
Tsurunen was born Martti Turunen in the village of Jaakonvaara in Lieksa, Finland.
He served in the House of Councillors from 2001 to 2013. Near the end of Continuation War, Tsurunen (then four years old) and his family were among the few survivors of a Soviet partisan attack on the village. Having decided to become Japanese, he gained his Japanese citizenship in 1979.
He moved to Yugawaramachi in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1981.
He ran again in 1998 and took 502,712, just 8,000 short of winning a seat. In 2000, he ran as a candidate of the Democratic Party of Japan for a seat in the Lower House, and again in 2001 for a seat in the Upper House, both unsuccessfully.
He was directly reelected in 2007 with 242,742 votes, the 6th-highest in his party, but lost his seat in the 2013 election after garnering only 82,858 votes (12th).
He ran for a seat in the Upper House for Kanagawa without party backing in 1995. He received 339,484 votes, losing a seat to the Socialist candidate who won 371,889 votes.
He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, where he serves as Director General of the International Department.