Saturday, March 28, 2009

Voting right for foreigners

Should foreigners in Japan given voting right?

Weather we should give voting right foreigners or not has been a controversial issue in Japan for a long time. However, many countries all over the world have already opened it to foreigners, like Belgium, Korea, or New Zealand.
I support the idea of giving it to them because of the following reasons.

First, the Japanese constitution says the voting right is one of the fundamental human rights. The interpretation depends on the person, but I believe we shouldn't limit it for natives. There are many foreigners who have lived in Japan for a long time, and become an important role in the community. For them, the voting right is the significant right to be given.

Secondly, the decline of the Japaneses interest for politics. The rate of voting has been declined. If the foreigners are interested in participating elections, we will get meaningful ballots from them, adding the native votes.

I'd like to mention about Koreans who were taken from their country to Japan when Japan tried to make Korea a colony. Some people said we shouldn't give voting right for them because they originally didn't want to live in Japan.
However, whatever the reason, they still live here in Japan, and had assimilated the community. Therefore, I think we should give them voting right to treat them fair.

Because of the recent progress of the globalization, many cosmopolitans have lived in the countries where they were not born. Japan and other countries should accept the fact, and treat them fair.

No comments: