Tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will step down from his role leading the country due to declining health, he said Friday. The bombshell announcement will bring a contest for the premiership in the world’s third-largest economy as it grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the looming threat from North Korea and an increasingly aggressive China.
“I have decided to step down from the post of the prime minister,” Abe said Friday at a news conference, adding that he was suffering from a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis that brought an end to his first term.
Hiroshige Seko, a party secretary general for the Upper House of the parliament, said earlier that Abe had decided to resign so his health wouldn’t “cause trouble.” (CBS News)
For full details, click: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-shinzo-abe-prime-minister-resigning-health-ulcerative-colitis-he-says-today-2020-08-28/