Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigns

With barely a year in the office Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced his resignation at a news conference held at his official residence in Tokyo today.

Seventy-two-year-old Fukuda took over as prime minister of Japan in October, Shinzo Abe, who also quit after less than a year in office after a series of corruption scandals.

Fukuda is reported to have been finding it extremely difficult to implement his policies because the opposition Democratic Party-controlled powerful upper house of parliament has been continuously blocking a number of his initiatives.

In June the upper house passed an unprecedented symbolic motion to censure the prime minister for the first time in the history of Japanese parliamentary democracy.

Fukuda said he decided it would be better for someone else to lead the nation through the turmoil, and asked his party to elect a new successor; the most likely choice expected to be the charismatic former foreign minister Taro Aso.
 
Fukuda's sudden resignation came a few days after he unveiled his €11-billion economic plan to shore up the flagging economy, though economist cast doubts about the succes of the plan.

By raising insurance premium for people over 75 and deducting health care expenses from pension payments, Fukuda invited the ire of the opposition as well as a large section of the public.

Fukuda also hinted that he was stepping aside to give LDP fresh political impetus a year before the next general election.

Weighed down by low approval ratings and an economy seen on the verge of recession, Fukuda's efforts to overhaul the economy were unable to overcome a divided parliament.