The decisive moment for the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is approaching, and it is one that the Liberal Democratic Party's elders fear may shatter its decades-long grip on power.
With the Aug. 13 close of the extended Diet session drawing near, LDP leaders are trying to put the contentious government-sponsored postal privatization bills to a House of Councilors vote on Aug. 5.
But the LDP's in-house battle over Koizumi's pet project has developed into more than just a battle to reform the state-run postal services. It is a struggle to cripple -- if not oust -- Koizumi's Cabinet, which has defied immense pressure from LDP lawmakers since his inauguration in April 2001 to pursue budgetary austerity and reform of inefficient government-linked corporations.