Rie's homework

Essay plan

Topic: local voting right to foreigners with special permanent residence in Japan

Introduction
-general information how many special permanent residents are in Japan
-background who special permanent residents are

Main body
They should have the suffrage on local authority.
1, Japan should accept the globalization. Some countries give the local voting right to permanent residents. eg: EU, and South Korea
2, Japan doesn’t allow dual nationality.
3, They should be treated as members of local community.

They should not ~
1, They should become a naturalized Japanese citizen if they want to involve the election.
2, They have got enough secured to live, compared with permanent residents.

Conclusion
-summary
-introducing some suggestions.


http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdf/10.1525/as.2003.43.3.527?cookieSet=1
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001387/138796e.pdf#page=90


Abstract

Japan is one of the economic leading countries, Japanese companies can seen everywhere in the world. Hence, compared with other developed countries, the rate of foreigners’ population in Japan is low. Non Japanese right does not seem to weigh an important part, but it has been discussed after the Cold War. The Democratic Party of Japan proposed the statement last year, it included that foreigners with permanent residence are given the local suffrage. The proposal is causing a lot of criticisms. This essay will discuss about the local voting right to people who have ‘special’ permanent residence. First, I will introduce general information of special permanent residents. Then, I will focus on the argument both sides ‘for’ and ‘against’. Finally, I will analyze the situation which Japan faces now, and give some suggestion of the right which they should have.


Introduction

Japan has seemed to be a homogeneous nation because of the small number of foreigners. There are 2,217426 foreigners living in Japan, it accounts for 1.74 percent of population in 2008. 41.1 percent of them are people who have the qualification which is able to residence permanently, and their population is increasing (Ministry of Justice, 2008). However Japan has enjoyed ethnic and national minorities, such as the Ainu in Hokkaido, Ryukyu in Okinawa, and Korean since before Meiji era. During Japan had been colonizing East Asian countries; Korea and Taiwan, a large number of colonized people were brought to Japan. They and their descendants have been living in Japan although the WWII ended. These people are called Zainichi, given the special permanent qualifications, which are treated well than the normal permanent qualifications. The population of them was 492,056 in 2008, the people who have Korean nationality was 99 percentage points (Ministry of Justice). They still have some restrictions in society, the biggest concern is the right to vote, and they have been insisting that Japanese government should promulgate them the local voting right. And DPJ expressed their insistence by promoting the statement. In the next paragraph, the reason to have the suffrage to them will be mentioned.

http://www.moj.go.jp/PRESS/090710-1/090710-5.pdf
http://www.moj.go.jp/PRESS/090710-1/090710-1.html