Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to resign due to health issues, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, citing sources close to Abe.
Speaking to reporters, Hiroshige Seko, a senior executive with Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said the prime minister had expressed his intention to resign to party officials. A government aide told CNN that they had also been informed of Abe’s intentions to stand down.
Abe had been expected to hold a press conference later on Friday to update on the coronavirus situation in Japan.
On Monday morning, Abe visited Keio University Hospital in Tokyo for what was his second hospital visit in a week. Abe suffers from colitis, a non-curable inflammatory bowel disease, which forced him to resign during his first stint as the country’s leader from 2006 to 2007. He became Prime Minister again in 2012.
Abe is Japan’s longest-serving head of government in terms of consecutive days in office.
This is a developing story
Source: CNN
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