外国人の参政権 : 地方参政権の場合  [in Japanese] Foreigner Suffrage : A recent case in the municipality  [in Japanese]

It was the judgment of the Supreme Court, dated Feb.28.1995, that brought foreigners suffrage to the forefront as a major issue in Japan. The Judgment contained a lot of inadequacias, and it seems that giving foreigners municipal suffrage is unconstitutional. Therefore, this paper presents an argument against "Tolerance Theory" which has presently prevailed. In my opinion, the only way to solve this problem would be to have foreigners with permanent residence and foreigners who have lived long term in Japan naturalized. Once they have got Japanese nationality, it's possible that could not only get municipal suffrage but also take part in national administration. Some special political measure is necessary in order to ameliorate the conditions for naturalization among foreigners of permanent residence. As for the issue of how Japanese and foreigners can well in the same society, I think it's the most natural and the most logical solution to accept foreigners of permanent residence as equivalent to Japanese, such as the case with ethnic Koreans.