Thanks to mediation efforts by Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono and Upper House President Satsuki Eda, the ruling and opposition parties have averted a fierce confrontation over the government's tax code bill, which includes maintaining provisionally raised gasoline and road-related taxes for 10 years from fiscal 2008.

The efforts of Mr. Kono and Mr. Eda were well-timed and are welcome. The ruling and opposition forces should make strenuous efforts to reach a compromise to deepen discussions on road-related taxes and avert causing confusion in people's lives. The Democratic Party of Japan planned to vote down the bill in the Upper House, where it and other opposition forces enjoy a majority, if the ruling bloc passed it in the Lower House. This could have lowered gasoline prices by ¥25 per liter until the ruling bloc passed the bill a second time in the Lower House, with a two-thirds majority.

To prevent that from happening, the ruling parties were poised to pass a stopgap bill in the Lower House on Wednesday to ensure extension of the provisionally raised road-related taxes through May 31. Even if the Upper House did not vote on it, the ruling parties could take it up again in the Lower House after 60 days and approve it by a two-thirds margin. But due to the mediation, they withdrew the bill.