The Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Yoshiro Mori, survived a no-confidence vote yesterday, but his coalition partners were already preparing their own campaign to oust him.
Votes against the opposition-sponsored motion in the 480-seat lower house totalled 274, while 192 voted in favour. "We have scaled one mountain, but another steep peak awaits," Mr Junichiro Koizumi, leader of Mr Mori's faction in the dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told reporters after the vote.