A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers reconfirmed Wednesday that they will block a plan to give permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections when the bill comes up in the next regular Diet session.
The pledge was made at a meeting chaired by former Education Minister Seisuke Okuno, a member of the House of Representatives.
A bill to enfranchise ethnic minorities was presented to a parliamentary committee during the extraordinary Diet session that ended Dec. 1, but the ruling coalition -- the LDP, the New Komeito and New Conservative parties -- decided to carry the bill over to the regular Diet session in January because they were unable to reach a solid consensus.
"New Komeito is seeking the cooperation of some LDP members in enacting the legislation in exchange for support in elections," Okuno told the meeting Wednesday. "The LDP leadership appears likely to attempt to push through the bill in the next Diet session."
Okuno's group believes non-Japanese residents should acquire Japanese nationality if they want to vote.
Under the proposed bill, foreigners aged 20 or older who have permanent resident status and have lived in one municipality for at least three months would have the right to vote in local elections without the need to acquire citizenship.
They would be also be allowed to vote in elections for municipal assembly members and for the head of their municipality. But they would not be eligible to run in municipal elections or vote in national elections.
Okuno's group proposed, among other things, revising the citizenship law to make it easier for permanent residents, most of whom are ethnic Koreans or Chinese, to acquire Japanese nationality.