Pity the proponents of daylight-saving time. Late last month, the third bill drafted to revive the energy-saving practice was put on the Diet's back burner, delayed by filibustering over postal privatization.

Politicians supporting daylight-saving have pledged to submit the bill in the next Diet session, according to Kazuo Motoishi, managing director of the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.

However, the bill's leading supporters were also opponents of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization and may lose their seats in the Sept. 11 general election, Motoishi said.