Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: “I am resigning due to health problems”

The announcement had been waited for hours and the confirmation came from himself. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, during a press conference broadcast on national television, confirmed that he will resign. “My current state of health, after the recent controls, does not allow me to focus on the most important issues that concern the government, so I intend to step aside,” he said. Abe suffers from ulcerative colitis that had already forced him to resignl 2005-2006. Local media report how he is meeting with various officials government at his party headquarters. Abe’s health problems, which have been circulating since this summer, escalated this month when he traveled to Hospital a Tokyo for two consecutive weeks for unspecified medical check-ups.

On August 24, Abe became the Japanese prime minister. longest, breaking the record for Eisaku Sato – his great-uncle – equal to 2,798 days without interruption. Abe’s primacy was the result of the union of the first short term, between 2006 and the 2007, and the subsequent period in government, from 2012 till the date. The last electoral victory of the Conservative party in the general elections of 2017 would have allowed Abe to govern until September 2021.

Meanwhile, the Japanese media are questioning the possible successor of the executive director. The 63-year-old leads the list again Shigeru Ishiba, former Minister of Defense and former challenger Abe at the head of the Liberal Democratic Party. Among the favorites also the current Minister of Defense Taro kono, who also served as chancellor on Abe’s former cabinet. Also on the list is the current head of the supervisory committee of the conservative party, Fumio Kishida, the 71-year-old chief of staff Yoshihide suga – one of Abe’s most loyal allies – and the Minister of Finance Taro Aso, who already served as head of government for a short time in late 2008.