At least publicly, the remaining unanswered questions include the identity of the next prime minister.
The presumed leading candidates are Morihiro Hosokawa, head of the JNP, and former Finance Minister Tsutomu Hata, head of the Renewal Party, which formed after its 36 founding members joined the opposition in voting to bring down Mr. Miyazawa's Cabinet on June 18.
The choice of a date for the new Diet's first session is Mr. Miyazawa's. News reports say he is tentatively looking at Aug. TC for the first meeting and the middle or end of the following week for the election of his successor.
On legislation, Diet committee chairmen do not vote when their panels decide whether to recommend bills, so it takes substantially more than a bare 256-vote majority to organize the lower house into an effective body.
Attempts to push controversial bills to passage thus will give the independents, and possibly the 15-vote Communist Party, an importance well beyond their numbers.
The coalition's tenuous grip on the chamber also will make it essential that the seven disparate parties manage to agree on all details of bills they try to press.
