Japan LDP plans to get postal services bills through lower house

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday confirmed that it is aiming to pass four postal services deregulation bills through the House of Representatives next week.

The LDP is assuming that reform-minded Prime Minister and LDP President Junichiro Koizumi will finish negotiating with the bills’ opponents within the LDP, who are backed by the state-run mail and postal insurance businesses, by July 3, LDP officials said.

The LDP, the biggest party in Japan’s three-party ruling coalition, believes the ruling camp will vote for the bills at a plenary session of the Lower House on July 5, they said. When enacted, the bills will allow private companies to transport private letters under certain conditions. At present they can only deliver direct mails, periodicals and the like.

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