The government Monday accepted a set of demands from top executives of the Liberal Democratic Party to further water down Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's contentious postal privatization plan.
The move means the government managed to clear one hurdle for Koizumi's Cabinet to submit related bills to the Diet by the end of this month, as pledged by Koizumi, despite tenacious resistance within his own party.
However, the LDP leaders will still have to win approval from rank-and-file members at its Executive Council on Tuesday -- the party's top decision-making body and another major hurdle for Koizumi to clear before introducing the bills to the Diet to get his pet project off the ground.