Postal services minister Shizuka Kamei, a key figure in the ruling triumvirate, stirred more controversy Wednesday by unveiling a plan to effectively maintain the government's grip on the postal financial system and thus dilute the full privatization previous administrations put in place.
But the plan drew fire from other Cabinet ministers as well as private-sector financial firms, prompting Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to suggest later in the day that Kamei's plan may be revised.
"(The plan) has not been endorsed by the Cabinet," Hatoyama told reporters in the evening in an apparent bid to contain fallout over the latest tack taken by the head of Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), a junior coalition partner of Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan. "It still needs more discussion within the Cabinet."