Kirk here with an update on Kumamoto City’s efforts to recognize foreign residents as community members, not merely as guests. Kumamoto City is doing this by saying that foreign residents are included in the concept of “shimin” (市民 – literally “person of the city”). This has been in the news this year because the city formally proposed changing the wording of the basic ordinance on local government (自治基本条例) to explicitly state that foreigner residents are shimin. When the city took public comment on this and other changes there was a good deal of criticism, much of it based on the misunderstanding that calling foreign residents “shimin” would give them (us) voting rights. That’s not the case but it’s easy to understand why people might think that; the English translation of “shimin” is “citizen” and so one might imagine that using this word implies full rights of citizenship (市民権).
So, in response to the backlash they got, the mayor has submitted a new version of the ordinance that omits that wording. That was disappointing to me and others who welcomed the “foreign residents are community members too” stance of the city, but what is presented in this news video is quite encouraging. Here are the main points:
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Two city council representatives questioned the removal of the note about foreign residents being shimin, one asking if the mayor didn’t simple cave to pressure from people who don’t even live in Kumamoto.
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A city official reiterated that the city does now, as it did before, consider foreign residents to be “shimin.” Moreover, the official says that they will work to help more citizens understand that position.
Personally, I was afraid that his issue was more-or-less dead so I was glad to hear the comments from the city council representatives and the official.
Note: It’s my understanding that Kumamoto City is the only city in Japan to try to take a stand on this issue. So, as a resident (shimin) of the city, that’s something I take pride in. :)
