foreigners in Japan

I made the following comment over at debito.org in regards to this post (it maybe take a short while before the comment is approved):

Three potentially flawed reasons for not supporting the local suffrage among permanent residents:

1. It's not what foreigners should want. They should want to real deal, citizenship. What's really needed is citizenship that is *explicitly* moot on the subject of dual or multiple citizenship. Citizenship should be construed as a right gained at some point after one has taken up residence in Japan (in regards to "foreigners."). It is absolutely *not* some kind of weird commitment to the state.

2. By granting half-measures, it gives an excuse to not grant the whole thing. Does the "foreign" community want to be ameliorated or given what it really deserves. The more partial fixes accepted, the more difficult it becomes to get what is really deserved. Fighting for this might be, ironically, counter productive to easing naturalization laws.

3. Actually, reading some of the (frivolous) arguments above, I think a lot of their thunder would be stolen by focusing on naturalization. It's a right, it's an entitlement at some point. It's not some gift bestowed upon the fortunate few by an almighty state. A few changes here and there, piecemeal to the naturalization process could potentially make a big difference, and might even be less controversial. Why this silly focus on the right to vote in local elections? It seems counter productive. I'm half suspicious this is intentional.