(Photo: Reuters-Yonhap)
[Anchor]
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says he will not stand for re-election as the leader of his party, paving the way for his departure from office just a year after taking power.
Suga said he wanted to focus on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
The BBC's Will Leonardo reports.
[Reporter]
Yoshihide Suga took power from his former boss, Shinzo Abe, last September not long after Mr. Abe became Japan's longest-serving prime minister.
His, in comparison, short tenure is about to end with Japan in the midst of its worst COVID outbreak yet.
Mr. Suga said he struggled to tackle the pandemic while also fighting a leadership election.
But much of the country already appears to have given up on his COVID handling, which included soft-touch restrictions and a slow off the mark vaccination program.
His government's hosting of the Summer Olympics doesn't appear to have boosted his support overshadowed as they were by dramatically rising domestic cases.
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