Haraguchi positive on granting foreigners local voting rights+

TOKYO, Oct. 8 Kyodo -
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi showed a
positive stance Thursday over a proposal to give voting rights to foreign
nationals with permanent residency in gubernatorial, mayoral and local assembly
elections in Japan.

''Some conclusion should be reached on the matter, and I want to seek a
realistic response,'' Haraguchi said in an interview with a limited number of
news organizations including Kyodo News.
Haraguchi assumed the internal affairs portfolio in the Cabinet of Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama in mid-September after Hatoyama's Democratic Party of
Japan scored a landslide victory in the Aug. 30 general election for the House
of Representatives and wrested power from the long-governing Liberal Democratic
Party.
In August before assuming power, Hatoyama said that while there are arguments
within his party for and against the idea of granting local voting rights to
foreign residents, the time has come to consider it more positively.
Last month, DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa told a South Korean lawmaker he
would try to settle the issue during the next regular parliamentary session
beginning in January.
In the interview, Haraguchi said the matter has long been discussed at a
national level and that he thinks both Hatoyama and Ozawa had spoken expecting
a positive conclusion from such discussions.
The local voting right issue is expected to be taken up at Friday's summit
meeting in Seoul between Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak.
Hatoyama will visit China to attend a trilateral summit to be held the
following day in Beijing involving the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea.
Asked when a bill intended to grant local voting rights to foreign residents
would be presented in the Diet, Haraguchi said it is too early to say.
However, a number of DPJ lawmakers are hesitant about granting local voting
rights to foreigners.
One of the DPJ's coalition partners, the People's New Party led by Financial
Services Minister Shizuka Kamei, is opposed to it.
LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki is also unenthusiastic.
There are an estimated 400,000 Koreans with permanent residency status in
Japan. South Korea has asked Japan to provide them with local voting rights.
In a 1995 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not
forbid a law being passed to guarantee local voting rights to foreign
residents.
The DPJ, the New Komeito party and the Japanese Communist Party have submitted
such bills to the Diet a total of 12 times since 1998. But such bills were
scrapped due to opposition mainly from the LDP.
==Kyodo
2009-10-08 23: