The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party basically agreed Tuesday to revise a package of postal-services deregulation bills, making it likely that the legislation will pass the Diet before the current session ends July 31.
The agreement effectively ends another round of tug-of-war between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the "resistance forces" within his party. Koizumi and other LDP executives will negotiate further before finalizing the revisions, as the prime minister opposes some of the conditions offered by the other executives, party sources said.
On the surface, the compromise marks a big accomplishment for Koizumi, who has made the pending postal legislation one of the most important elements of his reform agenda.