#Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expected to resign over health concerns

Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history, is expected to resign over health issues, reports said early Friday.

Japan’s national broadcaster said that the prime minister will announce in a press conference Friday evening that he “intends to resign as his illness has worsened and he worries it will cause trouble.”

Abe, 65, went to the hospital last Monday — his second visit in a week.

Following his Monday trip to Keio University Hospital in Tokyo, Abe tried to quell concerns about his health, telling reporters outside his official residence that he had gone back to the doctor to learn test results from the week prior.

Nippon TV, a Japanese news broadcaster, reported Monday that despite Abe’s claim that he had been in the hospital for examinations, he was actually being treated for ulcerative colitis.

Abe has publicly acknowledged having the chronic illness, even resigning from his first term in 2007 when it had worsened to a point that he could no longer govern. He re-entered the political arena in 2012.

With Post wires