House of Councilors President Juro Saito resigned Wednesday after he failed to mediate an agreement between the ruling and opposition camps over a plan to revise the way some of the chamber's members are elected.
Accepting responsibility for the protracted turmoil in the Diet, Saito tendered his resignation to Upper House Vice President Hisamitsu Sugano soon after discussions between the ruling parties and the opposition over revisions to the electoral system broke down in the morning.
It is the fourth time under the postwar Constitution that the Upper House president has resigned and the first time he has stepped down for failing to mediate between opposing camps.