Hatoyama says agreeing on local suffrage bill hard, but not giving up+

TOKYO, March 17 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he has found it tough to build a
consensus within the ruling coalition to submit a bill during the ongoing Diet
session to grant local suffrage to permanent foreign residents, but added he
has not given up on the matter.
''I understand that we are in a severe climate even within the ruling coalition
over whether to submit the bill,'' Hatoyama told reporters in the evening.
But Hatoyama also said, ''It is not that we have made a final decision,''
indicating his willingness to submit it.
Hatoyama's ruling Democratic Party of Japan is eager to submit the bill to
enable permanent foreign residents, many of whom are of Korean descent, to vote
in elections to pick heads of local governments and assembly members, and so is
the Social Democratic Party, one of the DPJ's two coalition partners.
But Shizuka Kamei, an influential politician who leads the other partner, the
People's New Party, has been resolutely opposed to the bill, demanding that any
foreign resident who seeks local suffrage should apply for citizenship.
If the bill is submitted, chances are high that it will clear parliament as
opposition parties such as the New Komeito party and the Japanese Communist
Party are also supporting the bill.
==Kyodo