As reported by The Japan Times, representatives of municipalities and human rights groups have voiced their opposition to government-sponsored immigration bills, on the grounds that the bills will violate foreigners' rights and lead to “excessive control” over them. Under the current system, local ward offices handle alien registration; the new bills would transfer responsibility to the Justice Ministry. Hiroko Uehara, the former mayor of the city of Kunitachi in western Tokyo, stated that centralizing the responsibility for alien registration would lower the quality of service for foreign residents. "Municipalities have so far made an effort to provide, at their own discretion, services to foreign residents," Uehara commented. "But if immigration takes control of registration, all that effort will be lost."

For details of the immigration bills at issue, see our previous entry about the proposed changes.