Following last month's fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara City, National Police Agency Commissioner General Itaru Nakamura expressed his intention to resign from the post at a press conference Thursday.
The police authority has been under criticism over the handling of Abe's security on the day of the shooting, and the resignation is effectively to take responsibility of the incident.
The resignation of a commissioner general over the handling of a single incident is highly unusual, but the unprecedented killing of a former prime minister occurred while Abe was giving a campaign speech for a candidate in the House of Councillors election.
