TOKYO – Japan's Prime Minister (PM) Shinzo Abe announced Friday he will resign over health problems, in a development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third largest economy.
“I have decided to step down from the post of the prime minister,” he told a press conference, saying he was suffering from a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis that ended his first term in office.
Abe said he was receiving a new treatment for the condition, which needed to be administered on a regular basis which would not leave him with sufficient time to discharge his duties.
“Now that I am not able to fulfill the mandate from the people with confidence, I have decided that I should no longer occupy the position of the prime minister.” Abe is expected to stay in office until his ruling Liberal Democratic Party can choose a successor, in an election likely to take place among the party's lawmakers and members.
There is no clear consensus on who will succeed him, with likely candidates including Finance Minister Taro Aso and chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Abe, who stepped down as prime minister just one year into his first term, in 2007, offered his apologies for the second resignation.
“I would like to sincerely apologise to the people of Japan for leaving my post with one year left in my term of office, and amid the coronavirus woes, while various policies are still in the process of being implemented,” Abe said, bowing deeply.
Abe has smashed records as Japan's longest-serving prime minister, championing ambitious economic reform while weathering scandals.
But once again he appears to have been undone by his health.
He was the country's youngest ever prime minister, and was seen as a symbol of change and youth when he took office in 2006.
But he also brought the pedigree of a third-generation politician groomed from birth by an elite, conservative family.
His first term was turbulent, shot through with scandals and discord, and capped by an abrupt resignation.
After initially suggesting he was stepping down for political reasons, he subsequently acknowledged he was suffering an ailment later diagnosed as ulcerative colitis – a debilitating bowel condition.
He spent months being treated for the condition, and upon his return to power in 2012 said he had overcome it with the help of new medication.
His second term in office, which saw him become the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's history, has been dominated domestically by his “Abenomics” economic drive – loose monetary policy, government largesse and structural reforms.
But Japan's economy had swung into reverse even before the coronavirus crisis wiped out remaining gains.
And Abe's handling of the pandemic has been criticized as confused and slow, driving his cabinet's approval ratings down to some of the lowest of his tenure.