Reforms in Japan

Tokyo - The Japanese Prime Minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, finally won parliamentary approval for his reform bills - in a watered-down form. After five months of intense parliamentary battles, the breakthrough came when Mr Hosokawa yielded ground to the Liberal Democrat Party by agreeing to scrap a proposed ban on big business donations to individual politicians, and to raise the number of Lower House MPs to be elected from new single-seat districts.

Reuter