A House of Representatives committee on Tuesday began deliberating a bill to enable permanent foreign residents of Japan to vote in local elections.
Liberal Democratic Party members protested the bill.
New Komeito Secretary General Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, one of the lawmakers who proposed the bill, told the committee session, "If the people who were born and raised in Japan and intend to spend the rest of their lives in this country wish so, they should be treated almost like Japanese citizens."