Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe listens to questions during a press conference at his official residence in Tokyo, where he announced his resignation yesterday.AFP

TOKYO: Weakened by scandal and failure at the ballot box, Japan's embattled prime minister announced yesterday he would quit after only a year in office, bowing out amid a political brawl over the country's aid to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

Shinzo Abe, at 52, Japan's youngest postwar prime minister, surprised members of his party and even his own Cabinet by deciding to resign only days after he pledged to stake his government on success of legislation to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean.