Enacting laws to allow permanent foreign residents to vote in local-level elections may be difficult in the near future and more debate is needed to form a nonpartisan consensus in the Diet, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday.

Speaking in the Lower House, Hatoyama emphasized that he is still a firm advocate of voting rights for permanent foreign residents but said the issue remains sensitive.

"I've long believed that (permanent foreign residents) should be granted voting rights in local elections, even in national elections," Hatoyama said at a Budget Committee meeting in response to a question from Tomomi Inada of the Liberal Democratic Party. The conservative opposition party opposes voting rights for foreigners.