Now that he's back from the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi faces an uphill battle to get his postal privatization bills approved by the House of Councilors.
In the House of Representatives vote held just before Koizumi's departure for the G8 summit, 51 lawmakers in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries in his Cabinet, either voted against or boycotted the vote on the bills.
As a result, the bills cleared the Lower House by a margin of only five votes. The gap between Koizumi's ruling coalition and the opposition camp is narrower in the Upper House than in the lower, and the postal bills could be rejected if 18 or more members of the LDP vote against them.