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Japanese prime minister announces resignation, ending year-old government
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he's resigning.
The announcement ends a year-old government that has suffered a string of damaging scandals and humiliating electoral defeat. Abe says Japan needs a leader whom they can support and trust as it fights against terrorism. Abe made his remarks in a nationally televised news conference. Abe, 52, whose support rating has fallen to 30 per cent, cited the governing party's defeat in July 29 elections for the upper house of the legislature and said he has instructed party leaders to search for a new premier.
He did not announce a date for his departure from office.
Abe said he is stepping down because he lacks the power to rally people, Japanese national broadcaster NHK quoted Liberal Democratic party Secretary General Taro Aso saying. Abe also said he was "tired" and had lost his political energy, NHK reported
Word of Abe's resignation comes after his scandal-scarred government lost control of the upper house to the resurgent opposition. The LDP still controls the more powerful lower house, which chooses the prime minister.
Abe, a nationalist who entered office as Japan's youngest postwar premier, had been facing a battle over his efforts to extend the country's mission in support of the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan. Just days earlier, he said he would quit if he failed to win parliamentary passage of legislation extending the Afghan mission.
The plenary session of the lower house was to be delayed, news reports said but an official of the lower house could not confirm, saying she has not heard of anything.
Abe's resignation would mark a rapid fall from power for a prime minister who came into office a year ago with ambitious plans to repair frayed relations with Asian neighbours, revise the 1947 pacifist constitution and bolster Japan's role in international diplomatic and military affairs.
The prime minister, whose grandfather was premier and whose father was a foreign minister, initially met with success in fence-mending trips last autumn to China and South Korea.
But a string of scandals starting late last year quickly eroded support for Abe. Four cabinet minister were forced to resign over the last nine months and one - his first agriculture minister - committed suicide amid a money scandal.
Opposition legislators said it was about time Abe resigned.
"It is irresponsible for him (to quit) after he gave a policy speech and was to face parliament questioning. He should have quit right after the upper house elections," Mizuho Fukushima, head of the opposition Social Democratic party, told NHK.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he's resigning.
The announcement ends a year-old government that has suffered a string of damaging scandals and humiliating electoral defeat. Abe says Japan needs a leader whom they can support and trust as it fights against terrorism. Abe made his remarks in a nationally televised news conference. Abe, 52, whose support rating has fallen to 30 per cent, cited the governing party's defeat in July 29 elections for the upper house of the legislature and said he has instructed party leaders to search for a new premier.
He did not announce a date for his departure from office.
Abe said he is stepping down because he lacks the power to rally people, Japanese national broadcaster NHK quoted Liberal Democratic party Secretary General Taro Aso saying. Abe also said he was "tired" and had lost his political energy, NHK reported
Word of Abe's resignation comes after his scandal-scarred government lost control of the upper house to the resurgent opposition. The LDP still controls the more powerful lower house, which chooses the prime minister.
Abe, a nationalist who entered office as Japan's youngest postwar premier, had been facing a battle over his efforts to extend the country's mission in support of the U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan. Just days earlier, he said he would quit if he failed to win parliamentary passage of legislation extending the Afghan mission.
The plenary session of the lower house was to be delayed, news reports said but an official of the lower house could not confirm, saying she has not heard of anything.
Abe's resignation would mark a rapid fall from power for a prime minister who came into office a year ago with ambitious plans to repair frayed relations with Asian neighbours, revise the 1947 pacifist constitution and bolster Japan's role in international diplomatic and military affairs.
The prime minister, whose grandfather was premier and whose father was a foreign minister, initially met with success in fence-mending trips last autumn to China and South Korea.
But a string of scandals starting late last year quickly eroded support for Abe. Four cabinet minister were forced to resign over the last nine months and one - his first agriculture minister - committed suicide amid a money scandal.
Opposition legislators said it was about time Abe resigned.
"It is irresponsible for him (to quit) after he gave a policy speech and was to face parliament questioning. He should have quit right after the upper house elections," Mizuho Fukushima, head of the opposition Social Democratic party, told NHK.
i hope its not another Koizumi, Japan were headed in the right direction. But obviously their cabinet is still full of Japan Imperialism.
