Japan: the contested boundaries of alien suffrage at the local level

Abstract

The provision of local level electoral rights in Japan for tokubetsu eijūsha (special permanent residents) and eijūsha (permanent residents) has sparked an ongoing controversy between opponents and proponents of extending the boundaries of suffrage. Periodically igniting for over a decade, the debate has involved politicians from across the political spectrum as well as local authorities, non-governmental organizations and academic scholars, yet remains locked into a cycle in which a period of optimism is followed by inaction and stagnation. In January 2008 the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan reignited the issue once more. Against this background, the goal of this paper is to highlight and trace the way in which the mainstream debate for and against electoral rights is being played out in the public arena. In so doing this paper makes two claims. First, we need to recognize the way that certain historical–social influences emanating from the processes of state-building since 1945 influence the current debates. Second, this must combine awareness of both legal/constitutional and normative aspects, as well as a sense of intra-party and inter-party political contestation.

Keywords:

• alien suffrage
• voting rights
• special permanent residents
• permanent residents
• Japan
• contestation
• Democratic Party of Japan
• Liberal Democratic Party

Acknowledgements

The foundations for this paper were laid during a number of trips to Japan between 2001 and 2003 that were financed by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. The support of both organizations is gratefully acknowledged. The author would also like to express sincere thanks to Hideko Yano for her assistance, without which this paper would not have been possible, and Professor Jo Shaw, Professor Usui Yoichiro, Professor Ejima Akiko, Professor Kondō Atsushi, Professor Ian Neary, Professor Nanri Keizō and Dr Nick Randall for the opportunity to raise and discuss numerous issues in relation to the paper. Participation in two respective workshops in September 2001 (‘New Citizenship and Participation in Japan and Europe’, organized by Professor Miyajima Takeshi; and ‘Citizenship in a Global World’, organized by Professor Kondō Atsushi) greatly enhanced the author's understanding of the Japanese case. The author would also like to express thanks to the comments of two anonymous referees and to the editors of this journal, Gordon Crawford and Jeff Haynes, for their guidance. Any shortcomings remain entirely the fault of the author.

Notes

Dahl, On Democracy, 86.

See Sassen, ‘Repositioning of Citizenship and Alienage’.

These figures come from the Immigration Bureau, 2008 Immigration Control, 18.

Ibid., 20. The rest are made up of a number of categories including foreigners who are long-term residents and those that need to renew their status every three years.

See, for example, Kondō, ‘Transnational Citizenship and Constitutional Principles’; Anbo, ‘Nihonkoku-kenpō to Gaikokujin’; Lee, ‘Post-National Politics in Japan?’; Suh, ‘Kyōsei-Shakai o mezashita Chihō-sanseiken’.

Quoted in ‘Kōmeitō Leader Welcomes Ozawa's Proposal to Give Foreigners Voting Rights’, Mainichi Online, January 24, 2008. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080124p2a00m0na011000c.html. A week earlier Ozawa met with the special envoy of President-elect Lee Myung-bak of where the issue of ‘local election voting rights for Special permanent Residents’ was raised, with Ozawa stating that he would do his utmost to ensure the promulgation of the necessary legislation. See ‘DPJ President Ozawa meets with South Korean National Assembly Deputy Speaker Lee Sang-deuk, Special Envoy of President-Elect Lee Myung-bak’, DPJ Homepage, January 18, 2008, http://www.dpj.or.jp/english/news/080121/01.html

Interview with the author, Tokyo, January 2009. Name withheld according to interviewee's wishes.

Leader. ‘Foreign Residents’ Suffrage not a Political Issue', The Daily Yomiuri (editorial), February 23, 2008, 4. The Daily Yomiuri is the English language arm of the Yomiuri Shimbun. It carries the editorial of its sister paper the following day.

See Supreme Court of Japan, ‘Judgement upon Case’.

At that time the governing coalition was composed of the LDP, the Liberal Party and Kōmeitō.

Kondō, ‘Development of Immigration Policy’, 420.

See ‘Ruling parties swap agendas’, The Daily Yomiuri, November 26, 2005, 3.

See the blog entry posted by Marutei Tsurunen, January 30, 2008, http://tsurunen.cocolog-nifty.com/ (accessed February 22, 2008).

See ‘Japan, S. Korea Deepen Ties’, The Daily Yomiuri, April 22, 2008, 1.

While the House of Representatives (Lower House) is deemed more powerful than the House of Councillors (Upper House), ‘the constitutionally approved powers of the nation's upper house are extremely strong compared with those of other countries with a two-chamber system’. See ‘Diet Stalemate Sparks Reform Calls’, The Daily Yomiuri, May 8, 2008, 4. According to Article 59 of the Constitution: ‘A bill becomes a law on passage by both Houses, except as otherwise provided by the Constitution. (2) A bill which is passed by the House of Representatives, and upon which the House of Councillors makes a decision different from that of the House of Representatives, becomes a law when passed a second time by the House of Representatives by a majority of two-thirds or more of the members present. (3) The provision of the preceding paragraph does not preclude the House of Representatives from calling for the meeting of a joint committee of both Houses, provided for by law. (4) Failure by the House of Councillors to take final action within sixty (60) days after receipt of a bill passed by the House of Representatives, time in recess excepted, may be determined by the House of Representatives to constitute a rejection of the said bill by the House of Councillors’. Kodansha, Constitution of Japan, 85, 89.

Quoted in ‘Minshutō to Push Foreign Suffrage’, The IHT/Asahi Shimbun, January 25, 2008, 21.

In an article dealing with expatriate voting, Claudio López-Guerra highlights what she considers to be a problem ‘given that permanent expatriates are no longer subject to the laws and binding decisions of their homeland, why should they have the right to decide who will govern those who do live within the country?’ See López-Guerra, ‘Should Expatriates Vote?’, 216.

Quoted in ‘Ruling Coming on Overseas Voting’, The Japan Times On-line, December 9, 2004, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20041209a7.html

‘Japanese Living Abroad Gain Full Voting Rights’. MSN-Mainichi Daily News, June 7, 2006. See also ‘Expats to get single-seat vote in June’, The Japan Times On-line, October 25, 2006, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20061025a7.html

‘Japanese Expats can now Vote for Specific Candidates’, The Japan Times On-line, June 8, 2006, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060608a2.html. It remains to be seen if people actually make use of these rights. During the 2004 House of Councillors election, for example, only 398 out of some 27,000 Japanese expatriates in Thailand turned out to vote. See ‘Expat Voters Rail at “Unequal” Rights’, The Daily Yomiuri, September 2, 2005, 3.

Richard Siddle, for example, who in highlighting the textured nature of citizenship writes ‘[c]itizenship in Japan, as in other contemporary nation-states, is more than just the possession and exercise of political, civil and social rights. At its intersections with discourses of identity and belonging it is both freighted with and mediated by official and commonsense notions of ethnicity and “race”’. See Siddle, ‘Limits to Citizenship in Japan’, 447. Abe Atsuko claims that ‘the notions of nation, state and ethnicity overlap each other to a great extent, more so than in other migrant-attracting countries’. See Abe, ‘Citizenship’, 114. It is this kind of scenario that has led Befu Harumi to argue that Japan displays an ‘ideology of homogeneity’ where multi-culturalism has yet to be fully accepted. See Befu, ‘Nihon ni okeru Bunkateki Tayōsei’, 39–49.

For an insight into the changing dynamics associated with national identity, see Oguma, Genealogy of ‘Japanese’ Self-images.

With close connections to officials and politicians, their role as opinion formers should not be discounted. As Professor Nanri Keizō, put it: ‘It is said, for example that the writers of editorials constantly exchange opinions with governmental officials and politicians while writing editorials’. Email message to the author, September 16, 2008. The significance of the legendary Chief Editor of the Yomiuri Shimbun, Watanabe Tsuneo, for example, is well documented. See Uozumi, Watanabe Tsuneo; Ito, Takashi and Jun, Watanbe Tsuneo Kaikoroku.

Varsanyi, ‘The Rise and Fall’, 115.

Hammar, ‘Denizen and Denizenship’, 32.

For more on the situation across the globe, see Waldrauch, ‘Electoral Rights’. For an insight into the European situation, see Day and Shaw ‘European Union Electoral Rights’.

This view stems from numerous interviews conducted in both Japan and Europe during the early 2000s.

Day and Shaw, ‘European Union Electoral Rights’, 188 (original italics).

Shaw, ‘E.U. Citizenship and Political Rights’, 2562.

For an insight into the ‘principle of affectedness’, see Hilson, ‘EU Citizenship’, 56–74.

Beckman, ‘Citizenship and Voting Rights’, 158.

The Working Group on Political Integration of the Carnegie Endowment's Citizenship Project, for example claimed that: ‘Promoting political participation among non-citizens need not diminish the value of citizenship. It will instead familiarize them with the political culture and can strengthen a sense of belonging that makes the decision to naturalize more attractive. From this perspective we argue for abolishing restrictions of political liberties of non-citizen residents and for granting them a local franchise’. See Bauböck, Report. Cited with permission of the author.

Kraus ‘Cultural Pluralism’, 670.

Kondō, ‘Transnational Citizenship’, 7.

This position emerged from numerous interview undertaken in Tokyo, in 2001 and 2003.

See Anbo, ‘Nihonkoku-kenpō to Gaikokujin’, 99–107.

See, for example, Lee ‘Post-National Politics in Japan?’; Kondō, ‘Constitutional Rights of Non-citizens’.

Under Chapter III Rights and Duties of the People, Article 14 (1) reads: ‘All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic, or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status, or family origin’. See Kodansha, Constitution of Japan, 41.

Interview with Professor Kondō Atsushi, September 2001. See also Kondō Atsushi, ‘Suffrage for Foreigners Vital to Democracy’, Asahi.com, October 21, 2004, http://www.asahi.com/english/opinion/TKY200410210133.html

Suh, ‘Zainichi Kan Chōsenjin’, 12. He is the first person credited with using the term teijū gaikokujin.

See Sugihara, ‘Eijūsha no Kokusei-senkyoken’; Eba, ‘Gaikokujin no Sanseiken’. See also Kondō Atsushi, ‘Suffrage for Foreigners Vital to Democracy’, Asahi.com, October 21, 2004, http://www.asahi.com/english/opinion/TKY200410210133.html

Gotō, ‘Gaikoku-jin no Chihō-sanseiken’,13.

Kondō, ‘Transnational Citizenship’, 21.

Anbo, ‘Nihonkoku-kenpō to Gaikokujin’, 104.

Anbo, ‘Gaikokujin no Sanseiken’, 33.

See Nakahara, ‘Sanseiken to Kika’, 92.

See Grimm, ‘External Democratization after War’, 525–49.

Morris-Suzuki, ‘An Act Prejudicial to the Occupation Forces’, 26.

It is generally believed that the English ‘all people’ in the American draft was translated into kokumin. See the discussion in Koseki, Shinkenpō no Tanjō.

Kibe, ‘Differentiated Citizenship and Ethnocultural Groups’, 418.

Neary, State and Politics in Japan, 210.

Abe, ‘Citizenship’, 119.

I am grateful to Professor Ejima Akiko for helping to clarify these developments.

This arose from the lawsuit of Chong Hyang Gyun, Tokyo's first non-Japanese public health nurse who was barred from taking promotion examinations. See ‘Tokyo Court Rejects Ethnic Korean's Promotion’, Asahi Evening News, May 17, 1996, http://voicenet.co.jp/~davald/ninkiseikoreancourt.jpg

See Supreme Court of Japan, ‘Judgement Concerning’.

Interview with Satō Yūko, member of Kanagawa Net and deputy of the Kawasaki City Assembly, September 14, 2001.

Interview with Iizuka Masayoshi, deputy of the Kawasaki City Assembly, September 15, 2001.

Chapman goes into much greater detail about these developments and the context in which they emerged. See Chapman, ‘Third Way and Beyond’, 39–41.

Ibid., 40.

See Suh, ‘Kyōsei-Shakai’, 89.

In the words of Fukuoka Yasunori, the term Zainichi was initially used in relation to Korean's who believed that ‘their stay in Japan would only be temporary’ in the aftermath of World War II. He goes on, however, to point out that ‘it is now used by some ethnic Koreans to make a distinction between themselves, the Japanese and mainland Koreans of North and South alike’. See Fukuoka, Lives of Young Koreans, note 14, 279.

Mindan Shimbun, August 15, 1999, 2. Reproduced in Suh, ‘Zainichi Kan’, 5.

See Suh, ‘Kyōsei-Shakai’, 93.

See ‘Kagawa-ken gikai ga “Hantai” ikensho’ [‘Kagawa Prefecture Assembly Presents Written Objection’], Mainichi (morning edition), October 15, 2000, 3.

The JINF is headed by the prominent television commentator/author and opinion former Sakurai Yoshiko. See, for example, the group's position paper that comes out against extending the boundaries of suffrage. See Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, ‘Proposal No. 2’.

‘Discuss Suffrage for Foreigners Fully’, Daily Yomiuri On-line, Leader, September 14, 2000.

‘Suffrage for Foreigners Insufferable Nonsense’, The Daily Yomiuri, Leader, November 17, 2004, 4.

The Independent (UK), March 1, 2008, carried the story of 13-year-old Megumi Yokota who was kidnapped by North Korea in 1978. Entitled ‘The Girl Stolen by North Korea: How Japan's Abductees Became Pawns in the US Nuclear Standoff’, the article went on to highlight the areas where North Korea has yet to be forthcoming in relation to information about how many and what subsequently happened to all of those who were abducted.

‘Foreign Residents’ Suffrage not Political Issue', The Daily Yomiuri, Leader, February 23, 2008, 4.

Iwabuchi, ‘Multinationalizing the Multicultural’, 106.

Interview with Professor Kondō, Atsushi, Fukuoka, 2001.

Interview with the author, July 2003. Name withheld according to interviewee's wishes.

Email correspondence with the author August 2003. Name withheld according to interviewee's wishes.

‘Affirming Voting Rights’, Mainichi Shimbun Interactive, Leader, October 1, 2000.

‘Ballot for Permanent Residents’, The Japan Times, Leader, February 24, 2008, 18.

Tanaka, ‘Eijū gaikokujin’, 8.

See ‘Japanese Warming to Foreign Residents – With Conditions’, Asahi.com, Annual Report 2000, http://www.asahi.com/english/asianet/report/eng_2001_33.html

Suh, ‘Zainichi Kan’, 10.

Under Chapter III Rights and Duties of the People, Article 15 reads: ‘The people have the inalienable right to choose their public officials and to dismiss them. (2) All public officials are servants of the whole community and not of any group thereof. (3) Universal adult suffrage is guaranteed with regard to the election of public officials. (4) In all elections, secrecy of the ballot shall not be violated. A voter shall not be answerable, publicly or privately, for the choice he has made’. Under Chapter VIII Local Self-Government, Article 93 reads: ‘The local public entities shall establish assemblies as their deliberative organs, in accordance with law. 2) The chief executive officers of all local public entities, the members of their assemblies, and such other local officials as may be determined by law shall be elected by direct popular vote within their several communities'. See Kodansha, Constitution of Japan, 41, 133.

Both cases are covered briefly by Kondō Atsushi in ‘Constitutional Rights of Non-citizens’ and by Hirota Masao in ‘Local Suffrage of Aliens in Japan’. Both papers were presented to the author and are held on file, September 2001.

See Supreme Court of Japan, ‘Judgement Upon’.

The preamble begins and ends ‘We, the Japanese people’. Article 1 reads: ‘The Emperor shall be the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people, deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power’. See Kodansha, Constitution of Japan, 15, 21.

This is taken from Kōhei Kobayashi, ‘Coalition Split on Foreign Voting Rights’, Daily Yomiuri On-line, September 20, 2000.

‘Foreign Residents’ Suffrage Not Political Issue', The Daily Yomiuri, Leader, February 23, 2008, 4.

Tanaka, ‘Eijū gaikokujin’, 5.

In 2008 a change to the law meant that children born out of wedlock to a Japanese father and non-Japanese mother could now receive nationality if the father recognized paternity even after the birth.

See, for example, ‘Discuss Suffrage in Proper Context’, The Daily Yomiuri On-line, Leader, January 19, 2001. For a list of the necessary requirements for naturalization, see http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html

Quoted in ‘Koreans Weigh Merits of Gaining Japan Citizenship’, The Japan Times, April 21, 2001, 1, 3.3, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20010421a3.html

See ‘Tokubetsu eijūsha no kokuseki shutoku kanwa e 3an Yotō kentō’ [‘Government Panel Discussing Three Ideas in Relation to the Nationality Criteria for Special Permanent Residents’], Asahi Shimbun (morning edition), February 9, 2001, 3.

Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, ‘Proposal No. 2’, 5.

One of Kōmeitō's key supporters is Sōka Gakkai, whose membership includes Zainichi Korean members.

At this time the Liberal Party had undergone a split and had joined the opposition. Some members remained within the coalition as the New Conservatives.

Interview with the author, July 2003. In February 2002, Tsurunen Marutei, a naturalized citizen from Finland, became the first non-ethnic Japanese to become a deputy in the House of Councillors (Upper House).

See ‘Nonaka Cautious on Vote Extension’, Daily Yomiuri On-line, September 22, 2000, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/0922po13.htm

Quoted in Howard French ‘Kawasaki City Journal; Forever Korean: Once Scorned, Always Scorned’, The New York Times, November 20, 2000, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EED81E3BF933A15752C1A9669C8B63

Ibid.

Verbal report of the proceedings provided by Iizuka Masaiyoshi who was invited to contribute to the Committee. Interview with the author September 15, 2001. This was also apparent a few years earlier. See also ‘Gaikiujin sanseiken hōan de Minshu naini “I-ron” shinchō-ha – kokuseki shutoku o zentei ni’ [‘Objections in Minshutō towards Foreigners Voting Rights. Conservative Say they have to get Nationality First’], Asahi Shimbun (morning edition), February 8, 2001, 4.

Interview with the author, Tokyo, January 2009. Name withheld according to interviewee's wishes.

‘LDP Foes of Foreign Suffrage Meet’, The Japan Times Online, October 20, 2004, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20041020b4.html

See ‘Local Suffrage must Reach all Permanent Foreign Residents: JCP’, Japan Press Service, November 18, 2004.

See ‘Elections Expand Voting Rights for Foreigners, Young Citizens’, The Korea Herald, June 15, 2006. See YaleGlobal Online, http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=7572

Interview with party official, January 11, 2009. Name withheld according to interviewee's wishes.

According to the JINF there were 55 Japanese with permanent residency in South Korea and 400,000 Koreans with special permanent residency status in Japan. See Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, ‘Proposal No. 2’, 3.

Quoted in ‘Now or Never’, International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, March 25, 2008, 21.

Ibid.

Interview with DPJ official, Tokyo, February 2009. Name withheld according to interviewee's wishes. In addition, I am grateful to Professor Kondō Atsushi for pointers about the Committee discussions.

For more on the establishment of the Foreigners Representative Assembly, see Kawasaki shi gaikokujin-shimin no shisei sanka no shikumi dukuri [Making a Framework for the Participation of Foreign Residents in Kawasaki], Kawasaki-shi gaikokujin-shimin daihyōsha-kaigi chōsa-kenky¯u iinkai [Kawasaki City Foreigners Representative Assembly, Research Committee], 31 March 1996.

Interview with Professor Shinohara Hajime (Chair of the advisory panel for the establishment of the Foreigners Representative Assembly), September 17, 2001.

Klopp, ‘Political Incorporation of EU Foreigners’, 242.

See ‘Eijū gaikokujin nimo tōhyōken: Shiga Maihara-chō no jūmin tōhyō-rei’ [‘Voting Rights for Permanent Foreign Residents: The Case of the Referendum in Maihara City, Shiga Prefecture’], Mainichi (evening edition), January 18, 2002, 28.

See ‘Gappei mondai de eijū gaikokujin ni tōhyō shikaku, Shigaken Maihara-cho de jōrei seiritsu’ [‘Permanent Foreign Residents Retain the Right to Vote on a Local Municipal Merger in Maihara City, Shiga Prefecture’], Asahi Shimbun (evening edition), January 18, 2002, 1.

See ‘Shiga – Maihara chō jūmin tōhyō eijū gaikokujin – Yatto machi no ichiin ni – Iyagarase, Kōgi mo’ [‘Referendum in Maihara – A Foreign Resident Commented “Now I feel I am a member of this town” despite some Harassment and Resistance’], Mainichi (evening edition), March 26, 2002, 13.

See ‘Eijū gaikokujin no jūmin tōhyō sanka’ [‘Foreign Residents Participation in a Referendum’], Mainichi (evening edition), March 25, 2002, 4.

Quoted in ‘Foreign Residents to Vote’, The Japan Times, January 19, 2002, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/np20020119a1.html

Interview with the author, August 2003.

Quoted in ‘Osaka Pref. Town gives Foreign Residents Vote’, The Daily Yomiuri, July 1, 2005, 3. The article goes on to state that, out of an electorate of 164,000, 1296 have special permanent resident status or permanent resident status while 169 have a residency status of more than three years. Of course, it should not be forgotten that a local referendum does not have any legal base in Japan.

This dichotomy was overtly apparent during various visits I made to meetings of the Kawasaki Foreigners Representative Assembly during 2001.

See, for example, Nakahara, ‘Sanseiken to Kika’, who highlights the intra-community cleavages and thoughts about naturalization and its corresponding impact on Korean identity. Chapman also highlights the cleavages and the impact of demographic changes within the community as well as the intellectual debate within the Zainichi community. See Chapman, ‘The Third Way’.

See for example ‘Mindan Petitions Lawmakers’, Japan Times On-line, October 5, 2000, http://wwwjapantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.p15?nn20001005a5.htm. One of Sōren's spokespeople Kim Myong Su, argued that: ‘Asking for suffrage would bring more minuses than pluses … As long as Japanese society and police authorities continue to harbour negative images about us, our participation in politics could only induce more discrimination against Korean residents’. Quoted in ‘LDP Wary of Suffrage Bill’, The Japan Times, 28 September, 2000, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.p15?nn20000928a2.htm

Quoted in Hiroshi Matsubara, ‘Opponents Sidetrack Suffrage Debate: Conservatives take Advantage of Divided Koreans, Push Naturalization’, Japan Times, December 1, 2000, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20001201b4.html

For more on this see ‘DPJ Split Deepens over Foreigner Suffrage Bill’, The Daily Yomiuri, February 11, 2008, 3.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Day

Please note that Japanese names have been rendered according to the Japanese norm of family name followed by the given name.