Mr. Abe left the news conference after his announcement of resignation at his official residence in Tokyo. Image from Yahoo! New.
A series of scandals involving his cabinet ministers, and failure to address several major issues, most notably the lost pension of pension records which affects about 50 million Japanese leads to the downfall for his ruling Liberal Democratic Party in upper house elections in July 2007, and for the first time in its history. I suppose Mr. Abe didn't have much choice left but to raise his white flag.
It's quite a surprise for me, as Mr. Abe just visited Malaysia not more than a month ago, and celebrated the 50th anniversary of Japan-Malaysia Diplomatic Relations.
As for the new Prime Miniter of Japan, the candidate will be decided next Wednesday.
