Kyoko Nakayama, former minister in charge of the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese nationals, offered her resignation Friday from the Liberal Democratic Party, following her unseated husband's decision to run in the upcoming upper house election for another opposition party.
As her husband and former transport minister Nariaki Nakayama, 67, is set to run on the ticket of the tiny new Sunrise Party of Japan in the July 11 House of Councilors election, the 70-year-old decided to break off from the main opposition party in order to support him, she said.