Japan's governor quits as anti-nuclear party head

OSAKA - Yukiko Kada, governor of Japan's Shiga prefecture, announced Friday that she will quit as chief of a splinter of the anti-nuclear Tomorrow Party of Japan which she had formed last November, Kyodo News reported.

"I would like to focus on my duty to administer the affairs of the prefectural government," Kada said in her New Year's address to prefectural officials in Otsu, the capital city of the prefecture.

Kada formed the Tomorrow Party of Japan a couple of weeks ahead of the lower house election on Dec 16. The People's Life First Party headed by Ichiro Ozawa merged with the antinuclear party soon. But the party split into two groups last week due to an internal rift following its disappointing performance in the lower house poll.

The Tomorrow Party of Japan was renamed Seikatsu no To (Party of People's Lives) and is run by members supporting Ichiro Ozawa, while Kada and House of Representatives member Tomoko Abe formed a separate party. Kada, who heads the small party, has been under criticism that she has neglected her duties as governor.