As of January 2025, approximately 140,000 foreign residents in South Korea were eligible to vote in local elections. With their numbers rising and their potential influence on election outcomes growing, some, particularly those from opposition parties, are voicing concerns ahead of the country's local elections scheduled for early June.
The debate dates back to the 1990s, when South Korea urged Japan to grant voting rights to ethnic Koreans living there. In a move intended to encourage Tokyo to follow suit, Seoul granted similar rights to foreigners residing in South Korea. In 2005, revisions to the relevant laws extended local voting rights to foreigners aged 18 and older who had maintained permanent residency in South Korea for at least three years. Japan, however, still does not recognize such rights.
In fact, South Korea remains the only country in Asia that allows foreign residents to vote in local elections, and even in the U.S. and Europe, such rights are allowed only in limited cases.
The issue is more complicated, as it is not simply a matter of Japan refusing such rights. The more pressing concern is that a growing number of Chinese nationals with permanent residency here are having a say in local elections.
But supporters say that such rights are granted only to those meeting strict criteria. Besides, their turnout rates tend to be low, as seen in the 2022 local elections, when only 13.3 percent voted, and voters are spread across the country, making it difficult to influence any single race.
They also maintain that any reciprocal measures would need to include permanent residents from all countries, and since few countries grant local voting rights to South Koreans living abroad, such a move would effectively eliminate the right altogether.
But opponents argue that the eligibility criteria for foreign voters are too lenient, and that if voters from a particular nationality tend to support one party, they could distort election results. They also stress that South Korea should not extend local voting rights when major countries such as the U.S., Japan, and China offer no equivalent rights to South Koreans living abroad.
At the center of the dispute is not the idea of foreign voting rights itself, but the high proportion of Chinese nationals among foreign residents in South Korea. In countries like the U.S., where immigrants come from a diverse range of countries, this may be less of a concern, but in South Korea, where a single nationality can make up a large share of eligible voters, controversy is more likely.
China does not grant local voting rights to foreigners residing there. In November 2022, after South Korea's Justice Ministry suggested the need to reform local voting rights for foreign permanent residents, the Chinese ambassador to South Korea promptly summoned a meeting to express objections, an unusual move that some viewed as breaching diplomatic protocols.
As there are no explicit residency requirements, some permanent residents could remain abroad after obtaining voting rights and return to South Korea only when it is time to cast their ballots.
To address this, two bills currently pending in the National Assembly aim to tighten these rules by requiring permanent residents to have either at least 10 years of residence after obtaining permanent residency, or at least five years, including at least 730 days spent in South Korea during the four years preceding an election.
Both proposals also include a clause for reciprocal measures. Strengthening residency requirements appears to be a reasonable step, but a cautious approach is needed on reciprocal measures. The government should take even a single concern seriously, as any election can be decided by a single vote.
Even a single concern deserves serious attention, given that any election can be decided by a single vote.
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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