10 The Day Migrants Go to Vote

▶ “Resident voting rights” for foreign nationals

In January 2002, Maibara of Shiga Prefecture passed a local referendum ordinance for a municipal merger, and granted foreign residents voting rights. It was a first in Japan.

“I am overwhelmed thinking of my father and others who have struggled through so much hardship in Japanese society,” a second- generation Korean woman who was born and raised in Maibara said, while feeling happiness mixed with the bitter memories of her childhood. Her father managed to raise five children, collecting waste materials. Because he was not covered by the health insurance system, her family had to suffer from large medical expenses when he got ill from overworking. She remembers the complex feeling she had when she heard her parents talking regrettably that they could not do anything because they were foreigners. She got married to a Korean man when she was 20 years old. Although she was interested in politics and local issues, she was not able to vote, due to the “nationality barrier.” Still, she did not seek to obtain Japanese nationality because she did not think that would solve the fundamental problems she had faced. But now, for the first time, her hometown wanted her to vote. “I hope that the third- and fourth-generations of Koreans will be able to live in a society that will not discriminate against them because of their different nationalities. I wish my vote to be the first step toward building such a society,” she said (excerpt from an article in Chunichi Shimbun, 1 April, 2002).

Seventeen years later, over 200 local municipalities have granted foreign residents the right to vote in referenda by passing ordinances. In most cases, foreign nationals granted with voting rights are limited to permanent residents. However, some ordinances extend voting rights to “permanent residents and spouses of Japanese nationals” or “all foreign nationals who keep an address in the municipality for 3 or more months.”

▶ The “nationality requirement” barrier that prevents the social participation of migrants

Presently, there are at least 3,987 foreign nationals working as public servants of local municipalities throughout Japan (national survey by Kyodo News Agency in 2016). There are also about 300 foreign teachers in public elementary, junior high, and high schools.

However, those foreign public servants and teachers face the “nationality requirement barrier” – that is, “Japanese nationality is required for civil servants who participate in the exercise of public power or in public decision-making.” This requirement restricts employment opportunities for foreign nationals, and further prevents those employed to be promoted to higher positions. This requirement is not stipulated under law, and is a mere government interpretation in the application of the law. Yet, due to this requirement, foreign nationals are prevented from being promoted to higher management positions in municipalities or school principals.

▶ The rights of residents “who have developed an especially close relationship” with the local community

The Local Autonomy Act stipulates in Article 10, Sec. 2 that “residents are equally entitled to receive all public services provided by the municipality to which they belong, and are obliged to bear the shared costs.” “Residents” in this article are not limited to Japanese nationals. However, while foreign residents are obligated to bear the shared costs of paying taxes in the same way as Japanese residents, they are denied the right to equally receive public services and the right to legislate and make decisions on those services.

On 28 February, 1995, the Supreme Court ruled, “To take measures by law to grant local suffrage to those – even among foreign nationals living in Japan – who are regarded as having developed especially close relationships with the local municipalities in which they live, such as permanent residents, for the purpose of representing their will in the public management of the local municipality that is closely related to their daily lives, is not prohibited under the Japanese Constitution.” In other words, granting foreign nationals local suffrage is not unconstitutional, and the onus is on the National Diet to move forward with such a law.

▶ National suffrage based on nationality, local suffrage based on residence

More than 1.35 million Japanese nationals are living outside of Japan. They are able to vote from overseas in Japanese national elections to choose members of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. They are also able to participate in local elections where they live, if they are residents of Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, and other countries, as those Japanese nationals are residents of those societies, even though they do not possess the nationalities of those countries.

The day when migrants vote in local elections, the day when a migrant becomes a school principal, and the day when a child of a migrant becomes a city mayor – that day will be the first step towards the realization of a wonderful local community where a rich diversity of cultures can thrive.