Japan opposition party leader quits

The head of Japan's main opposition party said on Thursday she is resigning while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party is losing public support amid a series of scandals.

Renho, the leader of Democratic Party, announced her resignation after the party performed poorly in the Tokyo assembly race in early July, which led its secretary general Yoshihiko Noda to express his intention to step down. Noda served as premier between August 2011 and December 2012.

Renho became the party's first female leader in September when she won the party's leadership race.

Democrats won a landslide victory in the 2009 general elections, ending more than a half-century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. But Abe's LDP retook power in December 2012.