The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has decided to postpone a speech at the Diet to eulogize slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe until this fall following criticism over the choice of the person to deliver it.

The LDP originally intended that Akira Amari, the party’s former secretary-general, would give the speech during an extraordinary Diet session starting Aug. 3.

However, some lawmakers in the LDP, as well as opposition parties, opposed the choice of Amari for the task.

The LDP also concluded that making time for the speech during the extraordinary Diet session would be difficult due to the schedule of the session.

The issue was further complicated by the LDP’s apparent willingness to heed a request from the opposition parties to hold a discussion in the Diet about its plan to hold a state funeral for Abe. However, it still hasn’t revealed when the discussion will be held.

Tsuyoshi Takagi, who chairs the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee, conveyed the decision to postpone the eulogy for Abe to Sumio Mabuchi, his counterpart in the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. This took place during a meeting at the Diet building on Aug. 1.

Because Takagi said the LDP will allow lawmakers to discuss the state funeral plan and other issues during the Diet’s recess, Mabuchi accepted that the extraordinary Diet session will last only three days.

With regard to the postponement, Takagi told reporters: “The (extraordinary) Diet session will be short, and I have to say that now is not a peaceful moment. We concluded that the next Diet session will be more appropriate (to do the speech).”

His remark suggested there was disagreement over the choice of Amari to give the speech, leading to the decision to delay the event until another extraordinary Diet session this fall.

Senior LDP officials explained that Amari was chosen to make the speech after taking the wishes of the Abe family into account.

But the plan was met with a strong backlash from LDP lawmakers after the media reported that Amari had been selected.

One of the reasons for the negative reaction was a post Amari made in his blog in mid-July about the future of the Abe faction within the LDP, the biggest in the party.

Amari said in the blog: “(The faction) has no choice but to operate under a collective leadership system in the near future, not just for the time being. No one in the faction has ability or charisma to lead it at present.”

Seishiro Eto, the former director-general of the Defense Agency who is chief adviser to the faction, criticized the blog saying: “This is such an insult. Our faction has many excellent people who could be the next LDP leader.”

The CDP criticized the choice of Amari, but from a different viewpoint.

One of the leaders of the main opposition parties has historically been called upon to give the speech when a prime minister dies.

“This time, many people couldn’t accept the choice of the speaker,” said CDP Leader Kenta Izumi.

Tomomi Narita, the chairman for the Japan Socialist Party, gave the eulogy for former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato (1901–1975), whose crowning accomplishment was the return of Okinawa’s sovereignty to Japan.

Takako Doi, who chaired the Japan Socialist Party, gave the eulogy for former Prime Minister Takeo Miki (1907–1988).

In her speech, Doi praised Miki for his great legacy of clean politics and pursuit for peace.

When Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi died abruptly in May 2000 while still in office, former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, not leader of the main opposition party at that time, was chosen to make the speech at the behest of the Obuchi family’s wishes.

Speeches to mourn prime ministers or former prime ministers after they die are made by lawmakers of political parties other than the one that the deceased belonged to in order to express condolences on behalf of the entire Diet.

Chinami Nishimura, the secretary-general of the CDP, has demanded a rethink of the choice of Amari saying, “I cannot help wondering if the eulogy will be made just for the LDP.”

(This article was written by Amane Sugawara, Yoshitaka Isobe and Yuta Kayaba.)