Opinion

Misplaced Priorities

By CHRISTINE O. CUNANAN-NOMURA

Newly installed Home Affairs Minister Katsuhiko Shirakawa recently instructed ministry officials to look into the possibility of letting foreigners take local government jobs ― including administrative jobs. At the same time Kawasaki City and the Kochi and Kanagawa Prefectural Governments have announced efforts to scrap the nationality requirement for public service posts.

Now the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is even considering revising the laws to allow foreigners to vote in local elections.

As a foreigner in Japan, I have no doubt that these efforts will have many benefits. The additional job opportunities will especially be welcome to the foreign community. Many non-Japanese will also appreciate having greater influence in local society.

While recognizing the good intentions of the bureaucrats who have agonized over these decisions, however, I can't help thinking that their priorities are misplaced at this crisis point in modern Japanese history.

There are many other more important and daunting tasks facing the government. It must first solve its own administrative problems and then work on improving the living conditions for its own people.

The government must streamline its operations and trim the bureaucracy to avoid putting additional tax burdens on citizens. To do so, it must learn to make do with fewer resources while maintaining efficiency.

The government must find ways to cope with a forecasted shortfall in pension funding and health care services. If a real solution to this problem is not found, the only way to keep these programs running will be to make salaried workers pay higher premiums and to force recipients, such as the elderly and the sick, to receive fewer benefits.

Japan must, as a developed country, make affordable housing available for all its people. Many Japanese cannot afford to own homes unless they take out 20- or 30-year loans for tiny properties far from the city.

The government must care for the increasing number of homeless people in major Japanese cities. Many homeless people claim that the bureaucracy has tried to ignore them instead of help them.

For many reasons, the opportunity to hold administrative government jobs and the right to vote are privileges of nationality. People who would like to claim these rights in a particular country must usually be citizens of that country. In fact, people in many countries would feel uncomfortable giving these privileges to foreigners.

I would personally consider it only natural if Japanese were the only ones who could hold local administrative posts and vote for their representatives. And, although changing the status quo would bring more benefits to foreigners, the Japanese government has more serious problems to consider than cosmetic improvements for foreigners. The government should not be tying up bureaucrats' time with study groups and meetings about relatively peripheral matters when so many more serious domestic issues remain unsolved.

Shukan ST: Dec. 13, 1996

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