Four ruling party lawmakers who did not back Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization bills have decided to support the legislation if the ruling coalition wins a majority in the general election, LDP lawmakers said Saturday.
The four Upper House members of the Liberal Democratic Party communicated their decisions to Mikio Aoki, the head of the LDP caucus in the Upper House.
On Friday, Yoshitada Konoike, considered a leading LDP rebel in the upper chamber opposed to the postal bills, said he would also endorse them if the coalition wins a majority.
The four are among eight LDP dissidents in the Upper House who either skipped or abstained from voting in the Diet session on Aug. 8 when the postal bills were voted down, prompting Koizumi to call a general election.
The four are Masaji Matsuyama, Shogo Arai, Atsushi Onita and Toshiei Mizuochi. They are in the LDP faction led by Mitsuo Horiuchi, who was among 22 lawmakers who voted against Koizumi's postal bills in the Lower House in July.