Fukui City has decided that prospective public housing tenants must be able to speak Japanese. Already, the ruling has come under fire from foreign residents and local government officers for being discriminatory. A spokesman for the city says they are responding to residents committees, who have complained about noise and problems over separating garbage. Just this fiscal year, Fukui was promoting multiculturalism in the city's danchis so the rule is seen as a drastic U-turn. It seems some foreign residents have been objecting to the new screening process when making a housing application. Fukui City is the capital of Fukui-ken and is so far the only district in the area to have introduced such a policy. The vice chairman of the prefecture's international programme has criticized the city, saying that foreign residents have the same right of access to government services and, if language difficulties are producing problems, it is the obligation of local officers to provide the necessary support. A spokesman at the Land Ministry wouldn't be drawn directly on the legality of the language policy but indicated that local governments have a degree of autonomy in administering local housing which they are expected to exercise responsibly. Fukui has 1,957 units of public housing of which 75 are currently occupied by foreigners. As of December, city records show 3,917 foreign residents although it's unclear how many of these would be entitled to apply for public housing.
Source (Japanese)