TOKYO -- "I want to be Japanese" and "here comes a blue-eyed assemblyman" are not typical titles for books written by a Japanese legislator.

But the author, Marutei Tsurunen, is not your usual Japanese politician. For a start, he's Caucasian.

On Friday, when he begins a new job as an opposition lawmaker, he'll make history as the country's first Westerner with a seat in Japanese Parliament.

"It's a huge responsibility," the 61-year-old, Finnish-born former English teacher says from his home in the hot springs town of Yugawara, south of Tokyo.

"Some people are expecting miracles from me. they say 'please change Japanese politics'. I say I can't do it alone. It's the voters that can do it."

In Japan, where ideas of homogeneity are deeply-rooted and only 1.5 percent of the population are foreign-born, Tsurunen's rise through the conservative political establishment has generated a mix of astonishment, respect and occasional ridicule.

But after years of handing out campaign pamphlets on street corners, Tsurunen says most Japanese appear to have finally accepted the idea of a foreign-born politician.

"For foreigners, Japan has changed compared to when I first came to Tokyo," he says.

Tsurunen arrived in Japan in 1967 as a Lutheran missionary but left the church in 1974 and married a Japanese woman. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen five years later.

After running an English language school and translating classical Japanese literature, he entered politics in 1992 and won his debut election campaign for a local town assembly.

Calling for stronger protection of the environment while standing up against vested interests, Tsurunen's policies carried a similar whiff of reform as the pledges that helped catapult Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to power last April.

And, like Koizumi, Tsurunen also became something of a celebrity.

But with the rise in his profile -- his blue eyes and dirty-blonde moustache earning him plenty of play on Japanese TV -- also came personal attacks and brushes with racism.

----Right-Wing Anger---

"Some right wing groups were threatening me, giving me phone calls saying go back to Finland, saying we don't need foreigners in our assembly," he said. "There was also blackmailing. Telling lies about me or my background.

"But no one killed me, so I am still here."

He left the town assembly in 1995 and made four bids for Parliament as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), finally winning an Upper House seat when a DPJ lawmaker resigned last month.

He becomes the first Caucasian in Parliament and the first foreigner in the Upper House.