There's a more accurate term for foreign permanent residents: Japanese.

Not really, citizens are Japanese, permanent residents are foreigners. Until the foreign residents gain their citizenships and voting rights, they are foreigners, not Japanese.

No, Japanese, that's why they're permanent.

Just because they are foreign and permanent doesn't mean they have any intention of being "Japanese". Just ask the French and the rest of Euroweenieland about their Muslim populations.

They're French.

About a million of them are Korean, and in many cases, quite proud of it, holding citizenship in South Korea (or for some, North Korea, and in a few cases, the defunct Choseon Empire -- these last are the ones with the biggest voting and other problems). There's a portion of the zainichi Korean population that wants to be Japanese -- particularly among the youth -- but by and large, they know they're Korean (hence separate Korean schools and Korean citizenship and all that), and their loyalty is to Korea.

Additionally, a significant and growing proportion of the "foreign" population are actually Japanese under the jus sanguinis sense that most Asian states have adopted into their law -- they're descended from the Japanese who moved to Brazil and other parts of Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. So though they may speak Portuguese and may have Brazillian citizenship and may not speak a word of Japanese, the Japanese government has welcomed them back (in a sense) to expand the labour force.

Of all these groups, a certain proportion have actually acquired Japanese citizenship. Some of the zainichi have ceased to be Korean, and have adopted the Japanese names forced on them during the occupation, and have become, effectively, Japanese, in the eyes of the law. Like the Burakumin or the Ainu (though not quite so bad), they experience some prejudice as a result, but they blend in pretty much. But they aren't factored into the foreign permanent resident population, as far as I know, any more than the Ainu or the Ryukyuans are.

Permanent.