Former foreign minister resigns from Japanese Parliament

TOKYO -- Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka resigned from parliament on Friday in a surprise announcement that came two weeks after she gave testimony over allegations of misuse of public money.

Tanaka, Japan's first woman foreign minister, had once been the most popular member of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet, when he swept to office promising economic and political reforms. She lost her minister's post in January amid bureaucratic infighting.

She handed in her resignation from the lower house of parliament on Friday, and the house speaker accepted it.

Tanaka told reporters she was stepping down to restore public trust in politics and because she had been stripped of her party privileges as a disciplinary measure by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.