In his first press conference of the New Year on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama indicated ethnic Koreans living in Japan could be given the vote. "I would like to submit the bill for parliamentary passage once negotiations are completed with the ruling party," Hatoyama said.

This is the first time the new prime minister has spoken of submitting the proposal to the Diet. There is a budding consensus within the ruling Democratic Party to support the measure. Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the DP, last month said party members should support the measure once it decides to submit a bill.

But it faces considerable opposition. According to a poll of lawmakers by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper on Dec. 17, 50 percent of DP lawmakers supported granting the vote to ethnic Koreans, but 25 percent opposed it.