Your Party leader Yoshimi Watanabe will step down as president of the minor opposition party he founded in the midst of a scandal involving ¥800 million in unregistered loans from a business tycoon.

At a news conference Monday, Watanabe maintained there was nothing illegal about the loans from DHC Corp. Chairman Yoshiaki Yoshida. Instead, he said he was resigning because "I have caused big trouble" to party members and others.

"It is true I caused big trouble to many people," Watanabe said in a video clip aired by NHK.