The postponement of debate on a bill that would grant limited suffrage to foreigners until next year at the earliest has prompted long-term foreign residents of Japan to question whether the nation is serious about embracing the foreign population.
Marutei Tsurunen, 60, a former member of the Yugawara Municipal Assembly in Kanagawa Prefecture, expressed his anger over arguments by opponents of the bill that granting foreigners suffrage would allow them to interfere in Japan's domestic affairs, thus threatening national security.
"To regard foreigners' suffrage as a threat to the national interest reflects the public belief that foreigners are different from Japanese and somehow dangerous," said Tsurunen, a Finland-born former missionary who acquired Japanese citizenship in 1979.