* This essay column is written by a longtime foreign resident of Japan.

Over the years I've learned that it's best not to pay too much attention to politics and politicians. It only encourages them.

Of course I know that come election time candidates' senden-kaa will join the other convoys of washing pole, recycling and various food trucks forcing their unwanted attentions on my neighborhood through their loudspeakers. That there will be more strange, smiling people in brightly colored clothes than usual near my station, wishing me a good morning. That I will get the come hither -- or is it the finger, I'm never sure -- from a stream of disembodied, white gloves sticking out of car windows. And that on election night the choice at my video rental store will be severely limited as everyone else seeks refuge from the election specials on every TV station.

I've also learned from bitter experience that if I want a quiet life, politics along with money and sex is a subject I don't raise with my wife.

My wife votes religiously and by that I don't mean she always votes for New Komeito, although in the run-up to an election she does seem to hear from an awful lot of long-lost Soka Gakkai friends.

I haven't voted -- by absentee ballot -- in my hometown in the north of England for years. Even when I was just 250 km down the road working in London I didn't vote. I think abstaining is just as much a democratic right as voting. And of course in Japan, although a taxpayer and a permanent resident, I am not allowed to vote. That never really bothered me, that is until a few weeks ago when I saw an editorial in The Daily Yomiuri/Yomiuri Shimbun titled "Foreign residents should not get the vote."

The editorial was in response to a New Komeito bill aimed at granting non-Japanese permanent residents the right to vote in local elections. The gist of the editorial was that the Constitution explicitly prohibits foreign residents from voting in Japanese elections.

This surprised me because this is the Constitution that was imposed on Japan by America, the country that used the "taxation without representation is tyranny" rallying cry in the buildup to the American Revolution that ousted the British. What didn't surprise me were the arguments used in the editorial: If I and people like me were allowed to vote -- even in local elections -- the very foundation of Japan would be undermined and the nation would come crashing down around us. Just about what you would expect from a right-wing rag like the Yomiuri.

According to the Yomiuri, if given the vote I will immediately disrupt all cooperation between my local government and the national government in times of emergency. This of course means that the mayor of Setagaya will not be able to muster his forces to go and help to turn back the foreign hordes sailing up the Tamagawa River. Apparently, I would also destroy the nation's education system by using my vote to dismiss education board members.

How so few of us -- the last time I counted there were just 1.7 million foreign residents in Japan and far fewer permanent residents -- could achieve this the Yomiuri did not say.

But it is an onerous responsibility -- I have become a voter, a destroyer of nations -- one that I don't think my shoulders are broad enough to bear. So the Yomiuri doesn't have to worry.

I'd much prefer just continuing to return the smiles of the campaigners outside my station, waving back to the white gloves and closing my windows to shut out the din of the politicians' sound trucks and their world of privilege, corruption and dishonesty.

I'd welcome any comments or opinions, in Japanese or English, about my column. You can write or fax me at The Weekly, or e-mail me at jtweekly@japantimes.co.jp

The Japan Times Weekly: May 15, 2004
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