ID :
99738
Wed, 01/13/2010 - 08:06
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/99738
The shortlink copeid
Gov't to submit bill to Diet to give foreigners local suffrage+
TOKYO, Jan. 12 Kyodo - Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet plans to submit a bill to the upcoming ordinary Diet session to give local suffrage to permanent foreign residents in Japan, ruling lawmakers said Tuesday.
Strong reservations remain within his Democratic Party of Japan-led coalition
government about the idea, however, despite Hatoyama's and other DPJ leaders'
support for it.
''While I believe I can gain understanding (from within the government), this
is something we are in the middle of considering within the government now,''
Hatoyama told reporters in Tokyo. ''It's my understanding that various things
are being considered because (this year) marks 100 years since Japan annexed
Korea.''
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said that the government is considering
the bill as one of those that should be submitted to parliament during the
150-day session convening Monday.
Asked which foreign residents would be given the right to vote in local
elections, the top government spokesman told a news conference, ''That is an
extremely important aspect to point out. We will be considering the contents of
the bill, including that point.''
The summary of a bill drawn up by DPJ members in favor of the legislation
indicates that people affiliated with North Korea, which lacks diplomatic
relations with Japan, would be excluded from those to be given local suffrage.
Hirano said the government will also carefully consider the ramifications of
giving foreign residents local suffrage from a constitutional standpoint.
Article 15 of the Constitution stipulates that ''the people have the
inalienable right to choose their public officials and dismiss them.''
Shizuka Kamei, financial services minister who heads the People's New Party,
one of the DPJ's two coalition partners, said Tuesday that his party opposes
the measure, giving rise to the possibility that the issue could potentially
rock the four-month-old coalition government.
''The People's New Party is not in favor of it,'' he said at a news conference.
''If they want to get it (local suffrage), they should be naturalized (as
Japanese).''
In contrast, the Social Democratic Party, the other coalition partner, is keen
on the idea, with party leader Mizuho Fukushima expressing hope of leading the
effort toward legislation.
But the legislation is unlikely to include a provision to grant permanent
foreign residents the right to be elected. Hirano has already instructed
internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi to consider drawing up a bill, one
of the ruling lawmakers said.
DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa said he, Hatoyama and other DPJ members in
the Cabinet agreed Monday that the government, not lawmakers, should sponsor
the bill in view of the importance of ties with South Korea.
''What we agreed in the meeting yesterday is that we should crystallize our
stance as the government of Japan,'' Ozawa said at a news conference. ''To that
end, we agreed it's better to make (the legislation) a government proposal and
proceed in that direction by considering it as swiftly as possible.''
While admitting that some within his party have opposed the measure, Ozawa
expressed hope that DPJ lawmakers will eventually vote in favor of it in
parliament without obligating them to do so because it will be sponsored by
their own government.
Reservations within the DPJ are unlikely to translate into strong opposition to
the measure in any case given the former DPJ leader's powerful presence in the
party, which swept to power by trouncing the long-ruling Liberal Democratic
Party in an election last August.
DPJ Diet affairs chief Kenji Yamaoka has expressed his willingness to see a law
enacted by the end of the upcoming parliamentary session.
Meanwhile, Tadamori Oshima, secretary general of the main opposition Liberal
Democratic Party, took a more reserved cautious stance.
''Many opinions opposing the move have been issued by prefectural assemblies,''
he said at a news conference. ''We must debate the matter, while respecting
such opinions.''
Earlier in the day, LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki instructed policy chief
Shigeru Ishiba to collate party opinions to formulate a policy on the issue.
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 that they
pay taxes as local residents.
During talks in South Korea last month, Ozawa said he wants to see a law
enacted by the end of the ordinary session.
Residents of Korean descent comprise most of the permanent foreign residents in
the country. Japan grants special permanent resident status to people from the
Korean Peninsula and Taiwan who have lived in the country since the time of
Japan's colonial rule over the areas and to their descendants.
This year marks a century since the start of Japan's colonial rule of the
Korean Peninsula in 1910, which lasted until Japan's surrender in 1945 ending
World War II.
==Kyodo
Strong reservations remain within his Democratic Party of Japan-led coalition
government about the idea, however, despite Hatoyama's and other DPJ leaders'
support for it.
''While I believe I can gain understanding (from within the government), this
is something we are in the middle of considering within the government now,''
Hatoyama told reporters in Tokyo. ''It's my understanding that various things
are being considered because (this year) marks 100 years since Japan annexed
Korea.''
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said that the government is considering
the bill as one of those that should be submitted to parliament during the
150-day session convening Monday.
Asked which foreign residents would be given the right to vote in local
elections, the top government spokesman told a news conference, ''That is an
extremely important aspect to point out. We will be considering the contents of
the bill, including that point.''
The summary of a bill drawn up by DPJ members in favor of the legislation
indicates that people affiliated with North Korea, which lacks diplomatic
relations with Japan, would be excluded from those to be given local suffrage.
Hirano said the government will also carefully consider the ramifications of
giving foreign residents local suffrage from a constitutional standpoint.
Article 15 of the Constitution stipulates that ''the people have the
inalienable right to choose their public officials and dismiss them.''
Shizuka Kamei, financial services minister who heads the People's New Party,
one of the DPJ's two coalition partners, said Tuesday that his party opposes
the measure, giving rise to the possibility that the issue could potentially
rock the four-month-old coalition government.
''The People's New Party is not in favor of it,'' he said at a news conference.
''If they want to get it (local suffrage), they should be naturalized (as
Japanese).''
In contrast, the Social Democratic Party, the other coalition partner, is keen
on the idea, with party leader Mizuho Fukushima expressing hope of leading the
effort toward legislation.
But the legislation is unlikely to include a provision to grant permanent
foreign residents the right to be elected. Hirano has already instructed
internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi to consider drawing up a bill, one
of the ruling lawmakers said.
DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa said he, Hatoyama and other DPJ members in
the Cabinet agreed Monday that the government, not lawmakers, should sponsor
the bill in view of the importance of ties with South Korea.
''What we agreed in the meeting yesterday is that we should crystallize our
stance as the government of Japan,'' Ozawa said at a news conference. ''To that
end, we agreed it's better to make (the legislation) a government proposal and
proceed in that direction by considering it as swiftly as possible.''
While admitting that some within his party have opposed the measure, Ozawa
expressed hope that DPJ lawmakers will eventually vote in favor of it in
parliament without obligating them to do so because it will be sponsored by
their own government.
Reservations within the DPJ are unlikely to translate into strong opposition to
the measure in any case given the former DPJ leader's powerful presence in the
party, which swept to power by trouncing the long-ruling Liberal Democratic
Party in an election last August.
DPJ Diet affairs chief Kenji Yamaoka has expressed his willingness to see a law
enacted by the end of the upcoming parliamentary session.
Meanwhile, Tadamori Oshima, secretary general of the main opposition Liberal
Democratic Party, took a more reserved cautious stance.
''Many opinions opposing the move have been issued by prefectural assemblies,''
he said at a news conference. ''We must debate the matter, while respecting
such opinions.''
Earlier in the day, LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki instructed policy chief
Shigeru Ishiba to collate party opinions to formulate a policy on the issue.
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 that they
pay taxes as local residents.
During talks in South Korea last month, Ozawa said he wants to see a law
enacted by the end of the ordinary session.
Residents of Korean descent comprise most of the permanent foreign residents in
the country. Japan grants special permanent resident status to people from the
Korean Peninsula and Taiwan who have lived in the country since the time of
Japan's colonial rule over the areas and to their descendants.
This year marks a century since the start of Japan's colonial rule of the
Korean Peninsula in 1910, which lasted until Japan's surrender in 1945 ending
World War II.
==Kyodo
