Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has resigned after less than a year in power.
The 52-year-old conservative, the youngest Japanese leader in modern times and the first to be born after WWII, came to office pledging to restore the nation's pride and rewrite the pacifist constitution.
But a series of scandals cost his ruling party control of the upper house of parliament in July.
He said he had instructed his Liberal Democratic Party to pick a successor as soon as possible. It is expected that the party will elect a candidate to the post next week.
