With a snap general election set for Sept. 11, the conflict within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over postal-service privatization has entered a new stage with the formation of a new party led by antireform old guards. The new group is led by Mr. Tamisuke Watanuki, former Lower House speaker, and Mr. Shizuka Kamei, former LDP policy chief, who were both leading figures among the intraparty forces opposed to postal privatization.
The future for the new party, Kokumin Shinto, won't be bright, though, if it fails to present something more positive than just a negative reaction to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's push for the reform of Japan Post. The conflict was dramatized in plenary sessions of both houses of the Diet.
After the privatization bills passed the Lower House on July 5 with a margin of only five votes, they were voted down in the Upper House's plenary session on Aug. 8 by 17 votes. Fifty-one LDP Lower House members rebelled against their party's official position: 37 who voted against the bills and 14 who were absent or abstained from voting. The latter group of LDP members have been allowed to run in the election on the LDP ticket on the condition that they vote for the privatization bills next time.