Local leaders oppose hasty move to give foreigners local suffrage

TOKYO, Jan. 21 Kyodo -
A national group of prefectural assembly heads urged the central government
Thursday to hear their and other local opinions before ''hastily'' submitting a
bill to the ongoing Diet session to give local suffrage to permanent foreign
residents in Japan.
Although the group refrained from clarifying its position about granting those
residents the right to vote in local elections, the move is an apparent attempt
to put a brake on the planned legislation.
''The issue concerns the essential part of democracy and will have a serious
effect on the function of local autonomy,'' it says in a resolution adopted at
a regular general meeting in Tokyo.
The group plans to exchange notes with the ruling and opposition parties in the
near future.
Japan does not allow permanent residents with foreign nationality, such as
those of Korean descent, to vote in local elections, much less in national
ones, despite strong calls among them for the right on the grounds they pay
taxes as local residents.
The government is mulling submitting a bill to grant such a right, Chief
Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said last Friday, before the regular Diet
session started Monday to run for 150 days.
==Kyodo