2nd LD Writethru: Japan's lower house speaker resigns for health reasons

Nobutaka Machimura, speaker of the Japanese Diet's House of Representatives, on Monday quitted from his post due to health reasons after handing his resignation to the chamber's vice speaker Tatsuo Kawabata.

Machimura, 70, was hospitalized recently due to a symptom of light stroke and therefore missed the lower house's assembly.

The seasoned politician said in a press conference that his health condition would bring difficulties to him to fulfill the duty as the chamber's speaker and he decided to resign.

Machimura, who had served as the country's chief cabinet secretary and foreign minister, took the post in December in 2014.

Tadamori Oshima, former vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is likely to be the Machimura's successor, according to local reports.

Oshima, who was also in charge of the Diet affairs in the LDP, would play a key role for the ruling bloc to push forward approvals of the LDP-proposed security-related laws revision, said local reports. Endi