Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told his Liberal Democrating Party that he intends to resign from his position as Prime Minister of Japan in order to address a “health problem”.

Reported by NHK News, Prime Minister Abe’s resignation comes as Japan is still recovering from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Abe has reportedly visited the hospital at least twice in recent weeks due to declining health.

While it’s uncertain if Prime Minster Abe’s resignation has anything to do with the ongoing pandemic, this isn’t the first time the Prime Minister has stepped down due to health reasons.

Editor’s Note: Japan Times report that his resignation may have been due to his chronic ulcerative colitis, a bowel disease. This was also the reason he stepped down in 2007.

In 2007, Prime Minister Abe stepped down shortly after his election in 2006, also due to a health problem. He was elected for a second term in 2012 and has been serving as the Prime Minister of Japan since. His time between both his terms has made him Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events.

This includes postponements of GDC, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the physical events for EVO 2020 and Tokyo Game Show 2020, Comiket 99, and cancellations E3 2020 (including digital events), BlizzCon 2020, the physical event for Gamescom 2020, Comiket 98, and MAGStock 2020.

We also reported Mafia: Definitive Edition being delayed, and Japanese theme parks implementing a soft ban on screaming on attractions.

The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there are over over 7.66 million active cases worldwide. There have been over 832,000 deaths, however over 16 million people have made a “total recovery.” There have been over 24.492 million total confirmed cases.

Japan has 12,705 active cases (66,493 total cases active cases), 1,246 deaths, and 52,542 recoveries.

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Image: Wikipedia