The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Abe faction settles on temporary leaders, but future remains murky
The Liberal Democratic Party’s largest faction, which had been led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, decided on an interim leadership structure at its general meeting on July 21. It was the rst meeting since Abe was fatally shot on July 8.
e lineup will revolve around acting chairmen Hakubun Shimomura and Ryu Shionoya until Sept. 27, the date set for Abe’s state funeral. However, the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai faction, as it is o cially called, lacks a universally supported successor to Abe as chairman, so it remains possible that the group could split up a er Abe’s funeral.
During the meeting, a portrait of Abe and a bouquet of
owers were placed on the table in front of the chair where Abe had sat as chairman. In his opening address, Shionoya said the faction members had a duty to stay “united” and carry on Abe’s wishes. Shionoya explained a plan under which the current leadership structure without a chairman would remain in place for the time being. e faction’s name will stay unchanged, as a step to ensure that maintaining unity is a priority. No objections were raised by those attending, so the plan was approved.
“We must work together even more closely and stay devoted,” Shimomura said to reporters a er the meeting.
Discussions on the faction’s leadership structure are expected to resume a er Abe’s state funeral has been completed.
A er the meeting, former minister in charge of economic revitalization Yasutoshi Nishimura, the secretary general of the faction, met with former Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori — a former head of the faction — near the Diet and reported the results of the meeting.
Attendees at the July 21 meeting were informed that House of Councillors lawmakers Seiko Hashimoto and Seiichi Eto had joined the faction. Consequently, the group now has 95 members and accounts for a quarter of the 373 LDP-a liated lawmakers.
e faction is prepared to rely on a structure centered on veteran lawmakers to navigate the coming weeks while lacking a top leader. However, it has become clear, even from the outside, that maintaining cohesion will be di cult. In an email newsletter dated July 20, former LDP Secretary General Akira Amari, a member of the faction led by LDP Vice President Taro Aso, suggested that the Abe faction currently does not have a single person with the strength and charisma to steer the entire group.
A Cabinet reshu e and appointment of LDP executives scheduled for as soon as early September is shaping up as the rst major challenge for the faction’s new leadership. Shionoya is set to be the liaison who would convey the faction’s
requests to Prime Minister and LDP President Fumio Kishida, and his ability to gain results be tting the LDP’s largest faction will be tested.
“If the Abe faction is treated coldly, I think calls for an overhaul of its structure will grow louder,” a source inside the faction said.
e largest potential source of internal friction is the race to be appointed as the faction’s next leader, who would become a candidate for party president and, in consequence, prime minister.
Among faction members, Nishimura ran in the LDP’s 2009 leadership election, and Shimomura also has indicated a willingness to throw his hat in the ring. Secretary General for the LDP in the House of Councillors Hiroshige Seko, who leads the faction in the upper house, said on a television program in March that he has aspirations of becoming prime minister.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda, who was close to Abe and has a good relationship with Mori and other key o cials, also has supporters within the faction. Younger faction members are getting behind LDP General Council Chairperson Tatsuo
Fukuda, who has been elected to the lower house four times and is a grandson of the faction’s founder Takeo Fukuda, who served as prime minister from 1976 to 1978.
Abe did not nominate a successor as faction leader. “Whoever becomes the new chair, some people will complain,” a senior o cial said, expressing a view widely shared within the faction. Discussions on the new leadership structure come with the real risk that this situation could lead to the faction splitting apart.
AKIE ABE MEETS WITH PM
Akie Abe, the widow of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for about 10 minutes on July 21 to express her gratitude to Kishida for attending her husband’s funeral.
Kishida reportedly once again expressed his condolences to Akie during their meeting at the Prime Minister’s O ce.
Special Adviser to the Cabinet Takaya Imai, a former special adviser and executive secretary to Shinzo Abe while he was prime minister, also attended the meeting.
On the same day, Akie attended a meeting of the Abe faction at the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party. According to a meeting attendee, Akie said her husband had many things he had wanted to achieve as leader of the faction. She urged the faction members to carry on his work.
SEPT. 27 FOR STATE FUNERAL
e government o cially decided at a Cabinet meeting on July 22 to hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 27 at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo.
It deemed that a state-funded funeral for Abe was appropriate in consideration of his leading modern Japan’s longest-lasting administration in addition to his achievements in both domestic and foreign a airs and the fact that he was gunned down amid an election campaign.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will o ciate at the ceremony.
e last time a state funeral was held for a former prime minister was in 1967 for Shigeru Yoshida.
“e funeral will be held in a simple and solemn manner, taking no religious form,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference a er the Cabinet meeting.
e expenses will be covered entirely by the national budget. An o ce was set up within the Cabinet O ce for preparations.
e prewar state funeral ordinance, which served as the legal basis for state funerals until it expired in 1947, stated that “the people shall mourn.” However, a state funeral based on a Cabinet decision is positioned di erently, and the government said it would not force the people to mourn and also does not intend to make the day — a Tuesday — a holiday for schools and government of
ces. (July 23)