Japanese Premier says he will resign
JAPAN: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on
Wednesday he would resign, ending a year-old government that has
suffered a string of damaging scandals and a humiliating electoral
defeat.
“In the present situation, it is difficult to push ahead with
effective policies that win the support and trust of the public,” Abe
said in a nationally televised news conference.
“I have decided that we need a change in this situation” Abe, 52,
whose support rating has fallen to 30 percent, cited the ruling party’s
defeat in July 29 elections for the upper house of parliament, and said
he was stepping down to minimize the political confusion in Tokyo.
Abe said he had instructed party leaders to immediately search for a
new premier, but he did not announce a date for his departure from
office. His former foreign minister Taro Aso is considered a
front-runner to replace him.
Abe said he was stepping down because he lacked the power to rally
people together, NHK quoted Aso, how LDP secretary-general, as telling
reporters. Abe also said he was “tired” and had lost his political
energy, NHK reported.
Abe, a nationalist who entered office as Japan’s youngest postwar
premier, had also been facing a battle in parliament over his efforts to
extend the country’s refueling 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. “I
have pondered how Japan should continue its fight against terrorism,”
Abe said Wednesday.
“I now believe we need change. So Japan must continue its fight
against terrorism under a new prime minister.” The plenary session of
the lower house was to be delayed, media reports said, but an official
of the lower house could not confirm, saying she has not heard of
anything.
Abe’s resignation marks 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 neighbors, revise the 1947 pacifist constitution,
and bolster Japan’s role in international diplomatic and military
affairs. Opposition lawmakers 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, Wednesday, AP. |