Japan's PM Abe to step down after record-long tenure english.kyodonews.net

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday he will step down as Japan's leader as he needs to be treated for a flare-up of the intestinal disease that led to his first resignation as premier in 2007.

Abe said he had been able to keep the illness, ulcerative colitis, under control for nearly eight years into his tenure, but he started to feel fatigue from mid-July and was diagnosed with a relapse earlier this month.