While the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by its new leader Sanae Takaichi, proposed the date, opposition parties objected to the schedule, citing ongoing coalition talks.

The LDP has approached the right-leaning opposition Japan Innovation Party in a bid to secure a majority vote and expand its coalition, which would enable Takaichi to become Japan’s first female prime minister.

A number of diplomatic events await the new prime minister toward the end of the month, from international summits in Malaysia and South Korea to U.S. President Donald Trump’s expected visit to Japan.

Meanwhile, AFP reports Takaichi the leading contender for the prime minister’s post had sent an offering to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo honouring war dead, on Friday morning, the first day of the autumn festival.

However, she is unlikely to visit the shrine this autumn festival, local media reported, with business daily Nikkei saying she was concerned about the “impact on diplomacy”

Past visits by top leaders to Yasukuni, which honours even convicted war criminals, have infuriated China and South Korea, and no Japanese premier has visited since 2013.

Yasukuni in central Tokyo is dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, mostly Japanese, who have perished in conflicts since the late 19th century.

But this includes senior military and political figures convicted by an international tribunal of war crimes prior to and during World War II.

A visit to the shrine in 2013 by then-prime minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi’s mentor, prompted fury from China and South Korea and disquiet from Washington.

Abe’s three successors including outgoing premier Shigeru Ishiba stayed away from the site during their terms at the top.

Takaichi had seemed a shoo-in to replace Ishiba. But after the Komeito party, the LDP’s junior partner, left the ruling coalition last week, she is now in a race to find new partners that could help her become the nation’s first woman prime minister.