Foreigners won’t have the right to vote in Sunday’s election but the national association of South Koreans, the largest ethnic group of permanent foreign residents, is waging a rare political campaign to win local-level suffrage because it believes there is too much at stake this time.

The Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan), which represents permanent South Korean residents, is campaigning for candidates in favor of foreigners’ suffrage in local-level elections.

Whether to give permanent foreign residents suffrage has long been a contentious political issue. Mindan has been pursuing the right for many years, and the election is viewed as a big chance to improve the odds, a senior Mindan official said.

“We are working to get as many candidates who are in favor of giving permanent residents local suffrage rights elected to the Diet,” Seo Won Cheol told The Japan Times.

“We are local residents just like Japanese citizens, but our rights have been ignored for too long, and our frustration has reached its peak,” Seo said, noting Mindan will push legislators to submit the bill to the next extraordinary Diet session.

“We are local residents of the community,” he said. “It is unthinkable that more than half a century has passed without giving us the right to participate in the community in a democratic society.”

Political parties are sharply divided over the issue. New Komeito, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party are clearly supportive of granting foreigners local-level suffrage. But the DPJ is still trying to unify its stance.

Critics of the idea of foreigner suffrage say the Constitution stipulates that sovereignty rests with the people, who are defined as as those who hold Japanese nationality. Thus one must obtain that before being given the right to vote.

Meanwhile, many countries, including South Korea, have given foreign permanent residents the right to vote in local elections, believing community-level political participation to be necessary and no threat to their sovereignty.

“What’s important is that we get as many people supporting the suffrage issue into the Diet,” he said.

Giving local suffrage to special permit holders is beneficial for the entire country, Seo said, adding that South Korea gave permanent residents local suffrage in 2005.

“To respect the rights of foreigners means that the country is keen on protecting the human rights of Japanese citizens as well, so I believe it’s actually a national benefit,” he said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090827a3.html

[Gaffe-prone Prime Minister Taro] Aso also expressed his disapproval of DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama’s willingness to give local-level suffrage to foreign nationals with permanent residency.

“Hatoyama says that Japan is not a country just for Japanese, but if that is the case, then whose country is it for?” Aso asked. “Honestly speaking, this isn’t something that will be resolved by just granting (foreigners) suffrage and it is likely that there will be many more difficult problems.”

While many lawmakers in the DPJ and New Komeito are for granting foreigners the right to vote in local elections, many conservative LDP members have expressed strong reluctance.

The prime minister added that the number of descendants of Koreans who lived in Japan before the war and were forced to take Japanese nationality at that time is declining and that “we must consider various things like whether (suffrage for foreigners) is even necessary.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090819a6.html

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the country’s main opposition political party and front-runner to take over the Japanese government in the elections to be held on August 30th, has promised a financial stimulus package of a different kind. Designed to address Japan’s increasingly worrisome drop in fertility rate, the DPJ’s stimulus, if enacted, will provide various financial incentives to couples who procreate.

Japan’s impending demographic crisis has long been known about but until now, there has been no real government proposal to make demographic improvements. The commonly accepted fertility rate to maintain the size of a population is 2.1 births per woman. Fertility rates higher than 2.1 will increase the size of a population over time; a rate lower than 2.1 will reduce the size of a population over time. As late as 2005, Japan’s fertility rate was reported as only 1.26 births per woman.

Although developed nations in general tend to have lower birth rates than developing nations, the demographic crisis is not as acute in Western Europe or the United States because immigration policy has been identified as a tool to increase populations over time.

While Japan too has the ability to use immigration policy to solve its population problem, it lacks a demonstrable political will. Japan has a history of maintaining a strict immigration policy and shows no sign of changing in the immediate future. As friendly as the Japanese may be to foreign visitors, its government is infamous for its aversion to immigrants; Japan has one of the most homogenous populations of any country on earth.

Given Japan’s preference for ethnic homogeneity, financial incentives for child-bearing couples may, at first glance, seem like an appropriate solution to Japan’s population problem. The DPJ is currently promising 26,000 Yen (about US $270) per month per child in addition to providing free high school tuition.

This ‘stimulus package’, however, could create incentives for perverse actions. Take for example China’s one child policy, which attempts to do precisely the opposite of what the DPJ says it will attempt. China’s attempt at social engineering, while successful in some respects, has had the unintended consequence of promoting abortions, increasing infanticide, and producing a disproportionate ratio of males to females in Chinese society, problems that only grows worse over time. A DPJ attempt at social engineering could prove equally problematic.

Japan is clearly facing a demographic crisis but the solution lies in immigration policy, not in bribes. Japan must open its borders, not its pocketbook, if it wants to solve this problem. The bleak state of Japan’s economy suggests there might be more efficient uses for taxpayer dollars.

http://www.examiner.com/x-16317-DC-Asia-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Japans-babymaking-stimulus-package