Two months after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sent a package of postal privatization bills to the Diet, his Liberal Democratic Party's Executive Council decided Tuesday to back a revised version of them by a majority vote.
It was the first time the party's top decision-making body reached a decision based on majority vote. Its usual practice is to reach unanimous consent.
The change in the decision-making was "unprecedented in LDP history," fumed council member and LDP heavyweight Shizuka Kamei, an opponent of postal privatization who declined to declare himself for or against the revised bills at Tuesday's council meeting. "I just cannot accept such a vote."